The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) will bring together 26 official government delegations led by defence ministers and other senior officials from the Asia Pacific region and wider security community to participate in the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue, to be held from 1-3 June 2007 in Singapore.
The countries represented are: Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste, UK, USA and Vietnam.
The security summit will help to shape the inter-governmental debate between the states of the Asia-Pacific and the major outside powers on the key security issues facing the region.
The 2007 Shangri-La Dialogue will feature many on-the-record events including a keynote address, five plenary sessions, and press conferences. Off-the-record events include three break-out groups that allow delegates to focus on more sensitive subjects in depth.
Issues to be addressed at the plenary sessions include: The United States and Asia-Pacific Security; China and India: Building International Stability; Nuclear Challenges; Securing Regional Waters: How Much Progress?; and Security Cooperation in Asia: Managing Alliances and Partnerships. During the break-out groups the following themes will be explored: Intervening in Fragile States; New Challenges for Security Sector Reform; and Progress in Counterterrorism.
As an important paradiplomatic mechanism, the Dialogue provides an opportunity for delegations to issue policy statements with important multilateral implications. Thus in 2006, the Shangri-La Dialogue saw proposals submitted for greater maritime security cooperation in the Malacca Straits and the establishment of a regional disaster and humanitarian relief centre. With wider participation, as Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will attend the summit for the first time, the 2007 Dialogue is certain to build on past discussions and provide the foundation for future security policies.
The Shangri-La Dialogue remains the wider Asia-Pacific region’s only regular meeting for defence ministers and is both open and transparent. It brings to the public eye issues that are normally closely held by security institutions and by doing so has contributed to regional confidence building.
Attendance and participation is by invitation only and requires advance police screening. For information on providing press coverage or to receive additional information, please contact dialoguepress@iiss.org.
For more information on country participation, the complete agenda, press policy and the history of the Shangri-La Dialogue, please visit: http://www.iiss.org/conferences/the-shangri-la-dialogue.
About The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)
The IISS is an international membership organisation based in London, and is both a limited company in UK law and a registered charity. It has offices in the US and in Singapore that operate under its name with charitable status in each jurisdiction. Founded in 1958, much of the Institute’s early work focused on nuclear deterrence and arms control, and the Institute was influential in setting the intellectual structures for managing the Cold War. Over the last decade the IISS has become a truly global organisation, with individual and corporate members in over one hundred countries. The Institute’s high-profile publications are universally regarded as providing the best independent, internationally sourced information and commentary on the main strategic events touching on national, regional and global security. The IISS owes no allegiance to any government, or to any political or other organisation. The Institute's conference activities are considered to be at the forefront of public policy development, given that its convening power is such that it can often bring government officials and others together in forum that they could not easily manage for themselves.
