Roundup: Experts believe Shangri-La Dialogue major platform for cooperation in Asia-Pacific

Although one of the main topics has been the South China Sea issue at the Shangri-La Dialogue, experts and officials have agreed that the security forum is still an important platform to promote collaboration and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region.

China's Defense Ministry spokesperson Yang Yujun said the Shangri-La Dialogue, which concluded on Sunday, offered multilateral channels for governments and scholars to exchange views, while military officials and delegates could also use this platform to conduct communications to enhance mutual trust.

"It is good for better collaboration and regional security," he said.

During the three-day event, Admiral Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of the General Staff of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA), met separately with military officials and delegates from 13 countries, and exchanged views on issues such as regional security and bilateral military ties.

Organized by London-base International Institute for Strategic Studies, the Shangri-La Dialogue brought together defense ministers, senior officials and security experts to exchange views on key issues that shape the defense and security landscape of the region.

The annual security summit has been widely recognized as Asia- Pacific's foremost defense and security platform.

Just days before the forum, U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter set a strong tone by claiming that China was "out of step" with both international rules and norms that underscore the Asia- Pacific's security architecture.

However, in his speech on Saturday, the U.S. defense chief spent most of the time talking about the importance of regional cooperation and also vowed to build better habits of U.S.-China military-to-military cooperation, which "not only benefits both countries but the whole region as well."

Sun, who delivered his speech on Sunday, also emphasized that China was committed to promoting win-win cooperation and a new model of international relations that meets the security and development needs of all countries.

"Confrontation must be replaced with cooperation and zero-sum game with mutual benefits if the purposes and principles of the UN Charter are to be carried forward. And this is also the way to achieve peaceful development," he said.

Tseng Hui-Yi, a research associate in East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore, told Xinhua that communication played an utmost role in maintaining regional security. Despite the existence of differences, it was necessary to keep the doors open, and the Shangri-La Dialogue was the platform to relieve pressure.

"No matter how fierce the conversation is, it is at least a form of communication," she said.

Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow with S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies of Singapore Nanyang Technological University, believed China's participation in the dialogue helped other countries better understand its position.

"China's continuous participation in the dialogue for many years would indeed, for example, clarify some misunderstanding in the international community against China, as well as deepen China 's understanding of what the wider international community is thinking in terms of defense, collective security and so on."

He said China should continue to join the Shangri-La Dialogue as it will make a very constructive voice about how China views the regional security architecture.

Oh also pointed out that the overdue spotlight shed on the South China Sea disputes has led to the neglect of other issues that deserve equal attention, including anti-terrorism and humanitarian aid. Although these topics were brought up at this meeting, they were not fully discussed.

"The Shangri-La Dialogue shouldn't just focus on a single regional issue that is currently still under control," he said.

Echoing Oh, Jin Yinan, a military strategist at the National Defense University of the PLA, also expressed his concern. "There' s a trend that delegates and the media are opt to intensify contradiction," he said, adding that the dialogue should not be a breeding bed for stirring up conflicts, but a place to solve problems. Endi