IISS Shangri-La Dialogue 2005
Dr John Chipman CMG
IISS Director
Friday 3rd June
Welcome to the Opening Dinner of the Fourth IISS Shangri-La Dialogue.
The IISS is proud to host this, the only, forum in the Asia-Pacific for defence minister-led discussions on pressing defence and security issues.
Now in its fourth year, this unique IISS experiment in multilateral defence diplomacy, has involved at one point or other, defence ministers, deputy ministers, chiefs of defence staff, national security advisors, permanent under secretaries, intelligence chiefs and other national security and defence officials from: Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, Canada, China, East Timor, France, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Vietnam.
The result has been the growth of the Shangri-La Dialogue into the richest collection of defence professionals in the Asia-Pacific, and we are delighted that this year’s gathering is the biggest ever.
This conference is, in fact, four events rolled into one. First, the plenary sessions offer an opportunity for ministers to clarify and expand on government policy, and to be challenged by an expert group on policies and assumptions, in this way informing and refining the quality of wider public debate on Asia-Pacific security.
Second, the break-out groups, also involving ministers and senior officials offers a private opportunity for professional discussions to more deeply analyse pertinent strategic issues and to advance policy aims. Third, the private bilaterals between defence ministers and other officials provides the opportunity to advance immediate policy goals. Fourth, the multilateral lunches help to cultivate the sense of a defence and security community where shared interests can be protected and advanced.
During the last four years the IISS has established a very special relationship both with the government and people of Singapore. The government has offered very generous support for the Shangri-La Dialogues. The IISS has established its Asia office in Singapore and is reaching out to the business, government and academic communities in Singapore as we further develop our specialist research and conference programmes. We have for long wanted to mark the special relationship with Singapore in a more permanent fashion.
I am delighted to announce that early last year, the Singapore Minister Mentor gave his assent to the IISS running a fundraising campaign to name our main conference room at our London headquarters, the Lee Kuan Yew Conference Room. We have now formally launched that campaign following major donations from Singapore supporters of the IISS. We are confident that the campaign will reach a successful conclusion this calendar year, and look forward to receiving the Minister Mentor one day in London, in the room meant to highlight his tremendous contribution to peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific.
Thank you, Minister Mentor, for giving us the opportunity to honour you in this way.
For supporting us at this year’s Shangri-La Dialogue I want to thank the Government of Singapore for its major host nation support, as well as the governments of Australia and the UK. Vital commercial sponsorship has been received from BAE Systems, Boeing, EADS, Singapore Technologies Engineering, Autonomy, the Asahi Shimbun, Space Communications as well as the Institute for Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS). This dinner is kindly sponsored by Bain and Company.
This conference is about strengthening defence links and developing strong policy.
Good policy depends on good ideas, and we are delighted this evening to have some very good ideas in the address to be delivered by our guest speaker. It is a great privilege for me to introduce The Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong to make the Opening Remarks to the 2005 IISS Shangri-La Dialogue. Prime Minister, the floor, and that Podium, is Yours.
