June 2nd 2002
By Chua Lee Hoong
The 'Shangri-La dialogue' that brought together defence ministers from Asia, Europe and America this weekend is likely to become an annual affair, plugging a current gap in the internatioanal dialogue framework.
Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Tony Tan indicated yesterday that ministers attending the meeting at the Shangri-La Hotel felt that it was a good platform and should be held annually.
'They shared the view that such regular exchanges are important to address the multi-faceted and transnational character of current security challenges,' he told reporters.
The three-day conference focuses on global terrorism and the aftermath of the Sept 11 attacks in America. It is sponsored by the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS).
IISS director John Chipman said Singapore was chosen as the venue because 'it has a habit of reasoned debate and intellectual provocation.'
He also said that while there were regular multilateral conferences on trade, social and many other issues, there was none yet on defence.
The IISS is setting up an office in Singapore, its second outside of London after one in Washington.
Speaking at the conference, Indonesian Defence Minister Matori Abdul Djalil highlighted concerns that the American-led war against terror would be seen as an assault on Islam and 'an opportunity to subjugate the Muslim world'.
Tacitly responding to external pressures to deal more firmly with terrorists on its soil, he said Indonesia was still in transition and combating terrorism was only one priority among others that included economic reforms and tackling religous strife.
Malaysian Defence Minister Najib Tun Razak said the international community needed both an immediate security response and a longer-term response that involves building international solidarity in the war against terror.
The latter included a 'global war' against injustice, poverty and underdevelopment, he said, and urged the United States to take the lead in fighting poverty.
Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, one of six American lawmakers at the conference, called for a 'wider lens' in developing American policies and relationships to combat terrorism, one that included military, diplomatic, economic and humanitarian strategies.
'We cannont afford to lose the next generation in this vital region of the world.'
