Singapore (VNA) – The 18th Shangri-LaDialogue – the leading security forum of Asia-the Pacific – officially openedin the evening of May 31 in Singapore.
The dialogue this year attracted the largest ever number ofparticipants, who are defence officials and scholars from nearly 50 countriesand territories, including 30 ministers and deputy ministers.
The Vietnamese delegation to the event is led by General NgoXuan Lich, who is a Politburo member, Vice Secretary of the Central MilitaryCommission and Minister of Defence.
In his opening speech, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee HsienLoong underlined the importance of stable and constructive ties between the USand China. He also highlighted the potential role that Singapore and othersmall nations can play to contribute to strengthening the multilateral worldorder.
The 18th Shangri-La Dialoguewill have six plenary sessions featuring the US’ vision on Indo-Pacificsecurity; Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) security: next steps;Asia’s evolving security order and its challenges; China and international securitycooperation; preventing conflicts in contested domains; and ensuring aresilient and stable region.
There are alsosix simultaneous special sessions on maritime security, defence industrialdevelopment and defence cooperation as well as hundreds of sidelines meetings.
DefenceMinister Ngo Xuan Lich is scheduled to address the fifth plenary session on preventingconflicts in contested domains on June 2.-VNA