PEACEFUL, OPEN, INCLUSIVE GLOBAL ORDER FOR STABILITY AND PROSPERITY: PM LEE

All countries must strive for a peaceful, open and inclusive international order to ensure stability and prosperity for the next 50 years. This was Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's main message at the opening of the 14th Shangri-La Dialogue on 29 May.

Delivering his keynote address at the annual high-level security summit, Mr Lee outlined three issues that were on the agenda, namely the balance of power between the United States and China, cooperation within the ASEAN region, and terrorism.

On the issue of power balance, he noted that there were many interdependencies and opportunities for the US and China to benefit from each other, such as China being America's second biggest trading partner, and the latter as a source of technology and ideas for the former.

He added that this could translate into a positive bilateral relationship between the two countries, which was also a key determining factor for the stability of the ASEAN region.

"All Asian countries hope that the US-China relations will be positive," said Mr Lee.

"We are glad that both the US Administration and successive Chinese leaderships have engaged, worked together and managed the problems that have come up between them, despite nationalistic pressures on both sides, and inevitable tensions from time to time."

However, Mr Lee noted that competition between the two countries was unavoidable. Citing the example of territorial and maritime disputes in the South China Sea and East China Sea, and how the US was responding to Chinese activities with increased over-flights and sailings near the disputed territories, he said that non-claimant countries should not take sides on the merit of rival claims. He explained that this would lead to tensions and bad outcomes, and every Asian country would stand to lose.

He also urged that, while these maritime disputes were unlikely to be solved anytime soon, they should be managed and contained.

Mr Lee's keynote address marked the start of the three-day security forum, organised by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

The Dialogue is a platform for defence ministers and senior officials to engage in conversations to build confidence, while fostering practical security cooperation.

As ASEAN celebrates its 48^th anniversary this year, Mr Lee noted that it had taken the lead to progressively build a framework of cooperation, engaging South Asia, East Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific.

He cited the ASEAN Regional Forum and the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting as successful platforms initiated by ASEAN to promote political and security cooperation in the Asia-Pacific.

While regional integration had become much better, Mr Lee urged that the countries should not rest on their laurels as "progress would not continue automatically".

As the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) grows in power, it has also become a real threat to the region, with Southeast Asia being its key recruitment centre.

With several individuals and groups in the region, including Singapore, already pledging their allegiance to ISIS, Mr Lee noted that this was the reason Singapore took the threat of terrorism very seriously.

"The threat is no longer over there (Iraq and Syria); it is over here. We are participating in the international coalition against ISIS and we're contributing a KC-135 tanker to the operation." He added that the tanker's deployment to the Middle East had begun that day.

Mr Lee concluded by saying that he hoped for a world "where legitimacy and constructive engagement are the international norm, and every country, big and small, can compete peacefully for the chance to prosper".

On the sidelines of the Dialogue, Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen met ministers and senior officials from Australia, China, Cambodia and the US.

Earlier in the day, he met German Federal Minister of Defence Dr Ursula von der Leyen, with whom he held a joint press conference at the Ministry of Defence.

During the conference, Dr Ng said that this year marked the 50th anniversary of both countries' diplomatic relations, and Germany was among the first few countries to form diplomatic relations with Singapore when the latter gained independence.

"Here we are today, with very strong bilateral defence relationships, at various levels. Military to military, policy, and many shared interests on many common issues - terrorism, cybercrime, human trafficking, humanitarian disaster relief."

Sharing the same view on their countries' defence relations, Dr von der Leyen said Singapore was one of Germany's key partners in the region, especially in the area of security.

She also noted that there were talks on intensifying training and cooperation between both militaries, as well as sharing expertise gained on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR), and military coordination.

Attended by 26 ministerial-level delegates, the Shangri-La Dialogue will see the leaders go through a series of plenary sessions to discuss topics ranging from managing strategic tension to HADR operations in Asia-Pacific.