Speech by Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen, at the Xiangshan Forum

尊敬的先生女士们, 大家下午好,今天非常荣幸能受刘将军与中国人民解放军之邀到香山论坛致辞。在此我要祝贺中方成功顺利地举办第五届香山论坛。香山论坛能进一步加强我们在区域安全问题上的集体对话。在此我也要感谢中方和主办当局给予我和我的团队的热情款待。

Let me thank the Chairman of the China Association for Military Science General (GEN) Liu Chengjun and Ambassador Wu for chairing this session and the esteemed colleagues on this panel.

I am very happy to be back at Beijing, I say back because I was here a week ago for a Defence visit, it was a good defence visit I am very happy to be able to meet old friends again. During this visit, I had a good look at the cooperation and collaboration between the Peoples' Liberation Army (PLA) and the Singapore Armed Forces. We had a joint exercise called Exercise Cooperation in Nanjing, where we exercised with the tanks that the PLA uses. I had the opportunity to visit August First Nanchang Uprising Museum. I was given the privilege to view the new ship in Qingdao, the Northern fleet, as well as to taste the wonderful Qingdao beer. And, we were very happy together with GEN Chang Wanquan to come up with the Four-Point consensus to build bilateral defence relations between Singapore and China. Thank you for the invitation to speak at this important Xiangshan Forum.

The theme "Regional Perspectives on Asia-Pacific Security" is appropriately timed, as the centre of gravity of global affairs has shifted to this region. Many economists have dubbed this 21st century as the Asian Century.  And indeed Asia is rising, and as Chairman Wu had eloquently pointed out, there are four, five waves. But amidst all this rise is China's growth, because of its heft, because of its size, is one critical reason why the centre of gravity has shifted to Asia. A very simple metric underscores this rise. At the end of World War Two, Asia's share of global GDP had fallen to under 20 percent, reflecting the underdevelopment of Asian economies, many of which remained under colonial rule. Fundamental reforms by China's Deng Xiaoping, Japan, Korea, and India's then-Finance Minister Manmohan Singh, opened these countries up to trade and foreign investment. In parallel, Southeast Asian countries gained independence and developed through economic growth and closer regional integration. Lifted by rising levels of education, industrialisation, export success and economic integration within Asia and the rest of the world, Asia's share of global GDP has nearly doubled in a generation. By some estimates, Asia could account for more than half of global GDP by 2050.

But with economic prosperity, Asian countries have pari passu, also modernised their militaries. As GEN Chang recently just said during his opening remarks China has to modernise its military. Defence expenditures in Asia are rising at a time when defence budgets elsewhere are shrinking. We know that in America, Europe, defence budgets have gone down by about 4 to 7 percent. But defence budgets in Asia rose 2 percent in 2011, 4.5 percent in 2012, and nearly 5 percent in 2013. Aggregated defence spending has overtaken Europe in absolute terms. We must ensure that Asia remains peaceful and stable, even as military modernisation occurs against a backdrop of occasional tensions arising from maritime and territorial disputes.

The APEC summit was successful as an economic summit. And most of us would readily agree that we need to evolve new financial and economic programs, initiatives, institutions. And these need to be evolved to match the developmental needs of many countries. Similarly, in the defence and security arena too, Asia needs a security architecture which can accommodate this military modernisation and provide for peace and stability in the region. This is the critical challenge for leaders of Asia today.

Here, I would fully concur with the three points that GEN Chang had laid out to strengthen the architecture, build cooperation, and find mechanisms for dispute resolution. There are no shortage of declarations of intents for regional peace and stability. But the key question that we as leaders need to confront is how do we build those mechanisms. What is the security architecture that will have resilience and robustness to provide for the regional peace and stability that we all want. I would propose three essential elements for this security architecture to promote peace and stability in Asia. First, the security architecture needs to be open and inclusive. Second, it must provide stable and regular platforms for dialogue, practical cooperation and confidence-building. Third, it must have mechanisms that promote peaceful means of resolving disputes and de-escalating tensions when they occur.

Today, a multi-layered security architecture has already emerged in the region, with formal platforms such as the East Asia Summit and the ASEAN Regional Forum, as well as informal ones like the Xiangshan Forum and the Shangri-La Dialogue. In a relatively short span of time, the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting (ADMM)-Plus, ten plus eight, has also established itself as a useful platform for regular dialogue between the ten ASEAN Defence Ministers and their counterparts from the eight partner countries. Just as importantly, the ADMM-Plus Experts' Working Groups provide opportunities for practical cooperation between the armed forces in the areas of common interest, such as maritime security, counter-terrorism, and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. Such practical cooperation builds confidence and mutual understanding, which in turn helps to prevent incidents spiraling out of control because of miscalculations or misunderstandings on the ground.

We need to redouble our efforts to build on these multilateral platforms. In addition, forums like the Shangri-La Dialogue and the Xiangshan Forum are especially useful, because they allow senior defence officials and leaders from regional countries to exchange views and perspectives in an informal setting. The ADMM-Plus has made good progress in this regard, successfully holding a major exercise last year in Brunei involving militaries from all 18 countries. Momentum for practical cooperation remains strong with three more exercises planned for the next two years, in the areas of maritime security, counter-terrorism, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, and transnational challenges.

If these regional platforms are to remain credible, we must also use them to address the security challenges facing us today. Our credibility is at stake and we must rise to the challenge. The early conclusion of a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea will be an important deliverable for regional security. We can engage all we want, but until we find the mechanisms, the language, the platforms, to ease tensions, our credibility will be at stake. Brunei's proposal for a Direct Communications Link to keep channels of communication open between ASEAN, China, and other partner countries, in the event of crisis and emergency is therefore an idea worthy of serious consideration. It is also encouraging to see China and Japan agree to "establish crisis management mechanisms to avoid contingencies", and the US and China announce confidence building measures that notify each other of major military activities and establish rules of behaviour during air and maritime encounters. Countries in the region must continue to build on these concrete, practical measures for de-escalating tensions, even as we work towards long-term solutions for dispute resolution through peaceful means.

Ladies and Gentleman, Singapore is a small country, but we will do what we can, such as through hosting the annual Shangri-La Dialogue; we have the Information Fusion Centre to enhance regional maritime security; and we recently set up the Changi Regional Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Coordination Centre. We hope that all stakeholders in this region will cooperate and collaborate to achieve the dream of peace, progress, and prosperity which President Xi Jinping had articulated for the Asia-Pacific region.

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Minister for Defence Speaks at Fifth Xiangshan Forum