As Prepared:
Welcome to the 8th IISS Asia Security Summit: The Shangri-La Dialogue. It is a delight and honour for the IISS, in collaboration with the Government of Singapore, to have brought together the defence and national security establishments of 27 participating states for this vital defence meeting. This trans-regional security Dialogue has become institutionalised as the key forum through which defence diplomacy is conducted for and in the Asia-Pacific region.
We are delighted to announce that earlier this year, the IISS and the Government of Singapore signed an agreement that permits and facilitates the holding of this Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore through to the year 2014. We thank the Government of Singapore for supporting this summit. Let me also thank the many commercial and philanthropic organisations, listed on the backdrop and on the programme, for the crucial financial assistance that they provide to the IISS, enabling us to bring you all here.
In previous IISS Shangri-La Dialogue summits, measurable advances have been made in co-ordinating approaches to the maintenance of maritime security in the Malacca strait and in harmonising attitudes towards the delivery of humanitarian assistance following natural disasters in the region. Key exchanges have taken place between defence ministers who otherwise might only rarely meet, and it is at this Dialogue that major announcements are often made on new defence attitudes and policies by defence ministers.
While the Shangri-La Dialogue offers opportunities for a public exchange of views on defence issues, it also creates the opportunity for the development of new bilateral relations between the participating states and for galvanising multilateral co-operation that will continue throughout the year until the parties meet here next. The Shangri-La Dialogue is therefore not just a conference, but a process that directly contributes to defence transparency, stability and security in this most dynamic of regions.
This year we meet against the backdrop of significant events that affect the security relationships in the Asia-Pacific and our agenda reflects the issues in need of open discussion and policy refinement. The newly elected Obama administration in the US has stressed its multilateral approach to international diplomacy, strengthening relations with allies, seeking new partners and calling on more states to contribute in their own way to the global public good.
Happily, relations between China and Taiwan have markedly improved and so for the moment a potential flashpoint has receded. Recently, as Asian economies have developed, so too has their interest in creating armed forces commensurate with their new weight in international affairs. China has appealed to others to understand its military growth as normal for a peacefully rising economic power. Will it and other Asian states naturally show the same understanding as another economic power, Japan, develops forces thought to be proportionate to its role in the international arena? India, surrounded herself by states that are fracturing and at the risk of failing, is also investing in a wider security role, and incorporating that contribution into the wider Asia security architecture will be increasingly important.
That said, and despite these ambitions, the present financial crisis has called into question the ability of some states to invest in defence and security, even as these economic circumstances throw up the potential for greater risks and instability. Indeed, economic security for many is the first priority, and within that, food and energy security are vital components. Ensuring that sea lanes are open and territorial disputes contained, is vital for these needs to be met.
For others, economic difficulties are no impediment to military growth. The nuclear test earlier this week by North Korea was a reminder that North-east Asian security remains vulnerable, and was testament to the need for robustly co-ordinated approaches by regional states to proliferation concerns.
For other countries involved in counterinsurgency operations, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar amongst others, the realities of the application of hard power are of immediate not theoretical consequence. These vastly different counter-insurgency campaigns need to be better understood, and this Dialogue will, we hope, help to serve that purpose.
The Shangri-La Dialogue represents a community of defence professionals, but there is a vibrant debate in the region on how the political architecture in the Asia-Pacific should be designed.
We are delighted that tonight we begin the practice of receiving at the Shangri-La Dialogue a head of government of one of the participating regional states, and one who has much to contribute to discussions of defence diplomacy and regional architecture.
Kevin Rudd was sworn in as the 26th Prime Minister of Australia on 3 December 2007. Born in Queensland in 1957, he joined the Labor Party at the age of 15. Before entering Parliament in 1992 he worked as a diplomat and was posted to Beijing. A Mandarin speaker, he worked to develop a National Asian Language and Studies Strategy for Australian Schools and later was Senior China Consultant for the accounting firm KPMG. Before becoming Prime Minister he was a Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and later also for International Security and Trade. That experience and knowledge he now brings to the leadership of Australia’s government, and to us, as the Keynote Speaker at the Opening Dinner of the 2009 IISS Shangri-La Dialogue.
Mr Prime Minister, the floor, and this podium, is yours.