Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office and Minister of Defence II Pehin Datu Lailaraja Major General (Rtd) Dato Paduka Seri Haji Awang Halbi bin Haji Mohd Yussof led a delegation from the Ministry of Defence to the 21st Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore from Friday until Sunday.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr delivered the keynote address at the dialogue.
Meanwhile, the plenary sessions featured figures such as the Timor-Leste president, the Ukraine president, the Lithuania prime minister and the Indonesia president-elect, as well as defence ministers from the host country and the Asia-Pacific. The dialogue is a high-level conference organised annually by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) to discuss pressing regional security issues and initiatives pertaining to geopolitical competition, new security domains, technological development and future regional cooperation.
This year’s dialogue was attended by international heads of government, defence ministers, military chiefs and leading members of national security establishments of over 50 Asia-Pacific countries.
On Sunday, Pehin Datu Lailaraja Major General (Rtd) Dato Paduka Seri Haji Awang Halbi attended the informal Southeast Asia-United States (US) Defence Ministers Meeting convened and chaired by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J Austin III.
The meeting saw the exchange of perspectives on the current state of defence cooperation between the US and Southeast Asian nations particularly in facing the shared security challenges in the Indo-Pacific.
The minister also had short bilateral meetings with President-Elect of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto and Singapore Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Second Minister for Education and Second Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Mohamad Maliki bin Osman and Singapore Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen.
