“The striking feature about the official participation is the breadth and depth of European interest. All of the ‘Big Three’ European defence minsters – French, German and British – will be there, as well as Swedish foreign minister, Carl Bildt. We are also delighted that Catherine Ashton, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy for the European Union is participating for the first time, and speaking in plenary. She will be accompanied by the chairman of the EU military committee. The chair of NATO’s Military Committee, Gen Bartels, is also attending. European military expenditure may be in decline but defence diplomacy in the Asia- Pacific cannot be ignored,” Dr John Chipman, Director-General and Chief Executive of the IISS, said.
“Our Asian delegations are strong, with the Defence Ministers of Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, and Vietnam attending, and China’s delegation being led by Lieutenant General Qi Jianguo, Deputy Chief of the General Staff, People’s Liberation Army, who will speak in plenary, amongst numerous other military experts from China,” Tim Huxley, Executive – Director IISS Asia said.
“Twelve years into the Dialogue, the forum will hold true to the values of the IISS and continue to provoke intellectual debate on so called “hard” security issues such as preventative diplomacy and avoiding incidents at sea.”
Nguyen Tan Dung, Prime Minister of Vietnam will deliver the Keynote Address and also attending are the defence ministers of Australia, Burma, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the US.
The agenda includes five plenary sessions on: The US Approach to Regional Security; Defending National Interests, Preventing Conflict; Military Modernization and Strategic Transparency; New Trends in Asia-Pacific Security; and Advancing Defence Cooperation in the Asia Pacific.
The Dialogue will also host six special sessions on: Avoiding Incidents at Sea; The Afghan Drawdown and Regional Security; Missile Defence in the Asia-Pacific; New Military Technologies and Doctrines; Defence Diplomacy and Conflict Prevention; and The Cyber Dimension to Asian Security.
Defence Ministers will, as ever, use the Dialogue as a platform for making policy announcements on current strategic defence issues, and will hold private bilateral and multilateral meetings with the aim of enhancing collaboration between countries.