Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Friday urged Japan to purge its war past that continues to embitter Asian nations as he opened an annual Asian security meeting attended by defense ministers from all over the globe.
Lee, delivering a keynote speech at the opening of the three-day Shangri-La Dialogue, cited Japan and China as two key players in the region's emerging security and economic architecture.
(Kyodo) _ Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Friday urged Japan to purge its war past that continues to embitter Asian nations as he opened an annual Asian security meeting attended by defense ministers from all over the globe.
Lee, delivering a keynote speech at the opening of the three-day Shangri-La Dialogue, cited Japan and China as two key players in the region's emerging security and economic architecture.
He said Japan will be able to play a bigger role in the region if it is able to come to terms with its past history of military aggression during World War II.
"A revitalized Japan will continue to bring high-value investments into the region and play an important role in shaping the emerging regional architecture," he said in the speech.
"Japan will need to maintain its Security Alliance with the U.S. while developing mutually beneficial economic interdependence with its neighbors," he said.
"Japan can do this better if it comes to terms with its war past. Then it can close this chapter of history and move on to forge stronger cooperation and integration in the region," he added.
He also cautioned Asian countries against forming a closed Asia bloc centered on China that will neglect its ties with the rest of the world, including the United States.
"If we end up with a closed Asian bloc centered on China on the western side of the Pacific with a rival bloc centered on the U.S. on the eastern side, rivalry, antagonism and conflict will be inevitable," Lee warned.
Defense ministers and military officials from 22 countries, including the United States and Japan, will gather in Singapore this weekend to address security concerns in the region.
A three-day forum organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a leading politico-military think tank based in London, opens Friday evening with a keynote speech by Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
The fifth in a series since 2002, the Asia security dialogue, better known as the "Shangri-La Dialogue" after the hotel in Singapore where it is held, is the biggest gathering of defense ministers in the region.
The ministers not only give speeches but also engage in bilateral talks.
Until recently, the dialogue had been touted as the only forum for defense ministers in the region. But that role is being rivaled after the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations launched the first meeting of its defense ministers last month, which the group hopes to expand to an "ASEAN-Plus" defense ministers meeting with the involvement of other countries such as Japan and China.
The dialogue "will feature several opportunities to advance Asia-Pacific defense diplomacy," the IISS said in a statement.
Defense ministers or deputies from about 15 countries are expected to attend the dialogue this time, including U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Japanese Defense Agency Director General Fukushiro Nukaga, South Korean Defense Minister Yoon Kwang Ung, Indian Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Indonesian Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono.
China is sending Tan Qingsheng, deputy director of the Asia Department at the Foreign Ministry.
The forum will address issues such as U.S.-Asia security relations, constructing a security community in the region, global peacekeeping, insurgencies such as those in Iraq and East Timor, and maritime security in the pirate-infested Straits of Malacca, one of the world's busiest waterways.
Rumsfeld will speak on the "United States and Asia's emerging security architecture" at the first session Saturday morning and hold bilateral talks with his counterparts from several Asian countries.
