SINGAPORE: Conferences like Shangri-La Dialogue allow countries to understand each other's actions and can reduce the chances of misunderstanding and miscalculation, said Singapore's Defence Minister Chan Chun Sing on Sunday (May 31).Speaking to reporters in a wrap-up interview, Mr Chan noted that the Shangri-La Dialogue – billed as Asia's premier defence forum – allows countries to check their blind spots and get the chance to see how others are dealing with issues and the lessons they can learn from one another."The kind of outcome that we can get from the Shangri-La Dialogue is – again you may not see this – but where countries bilaterally, or perhaps in small groupings, have issues with another party, they are able to talk about it behind closed doors," he said."And sometimes when nothing happens on the surface, it is a mark for success, because some of those issues have been better managed or resolved."
The art of defence is to be able to pre-empt issues before they are formed, he added.Highlighting tangible initiatives that came out of this year's Shangri-La Dialogue, he noted that the Guiding Principles for Underwater Infrastructure Defence Exchanges (GUIDE) framework launched on Saturday stemmed from conversations last year.The framework was launched by 17 countries, including Singapore, to protect critical underwater infrastructure. "From those conversations through subsequent bilateral and multilateral conversations, we are able to get so many countries within the last 12 months to come on board to start this initiative," he said.
