Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen spoke at the 14th Munich Young Leaders (MYL) Roundtable on the topic "Forging A Path To The World As We Hope It To Be". The MYL Roundtable, held on the sidelines of the 59th Munich Security Conference (MSC)^[1], brings together young leaders from governments, think-tanks and the private sector from Asia-Pacific, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the United States to discuss issues related to foreign and security policy.

At the session, Dr Ng interacted with 20 young and upcoming leaders from 14 countries. He spoke about key global challenges and discussed the challenges that the younger generation will inherit. He said, "To greater or lesser extents, the challenges that you will inherit are all existential, meaning that the forces they generate of these challenges can either decimate our physical world or our current social-political systems."

Dr Ng also sought the young leaders' views on their goals, aspirations and the hopes of their generation, and the world that they hope it to be. He listed some aspirational goals that could help shape that envisaged world. He said, "One goal for all of us is to end the oppression and marginalisation of different groups, whether it is gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, and political persuasion … Second is to alleviate poverty. Apart from narrowing the gap, it is to raise the base … A third goal is to protect the fundamental rights of all citizens - proper education, employable skills for work, decent pay, clean water and law and order on the streets – because they are important."

Dr Ng is in Munich on a three-day visit to attend the 59th MSC from 17 to 19 February 2023 (Singapore Time).

[1] Held annually in Germany since 1963, the MSC is a high-level security conference that brings together key foreign affairs and defence leaders from around the world. This will be the eleventh time that Dr Ng is attending the MSC.