The IISS Asia Security Summit: The Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD) is an annual intergovernmental security conference held by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). Usually, defense ministers, permanent heads of ministries, and military chiefs of Asia-Pacific countries attend the dialogue. Since 2002, the forum has been held at the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore called the Shangri-la dialogue.

Through the summit, the most important policymakers in the region’s defense and security community cultivate a sense of community. The government delegations have taken advantage of the conference by holding bilateral meetings like QUAD for the quadrilateral security dialogue. Legislators, academic experts, journalists, and business representatives also attend the summit, which is primarily an intergovernmental event.

As an independent forum for exchanging views among decision-makers in international security
policy, the Shangri-La Dialogue has become increasingly important over the years. Among the
countries that have participated in the dialogue are Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, Canada, Chile,
China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Vietnam.

Format of the Shangri-La Dialogue

The summit begins with a keynote address by a well-known figure. Kevin Rudd was the Australian Prime Minister in 2009, and Lee Myung-Bak was the South Korean President in 2010. Throughout the remaining days of the summit, all participants attend about five complete sessions. On-record sessions are usually led by ministers and are open to the media as well. Ministers from a delegation have spoken in plenary since 2006.

An annual venue for ministers and top defense officials to network and expand their diplomacy
bilaterally and multilaterally, the Shangri-La Dialogue goes largely unnoticed. It is typical for a
government delegation to organize 15-20 such meetings over the course of a summit, each lasting half an hour.

Background of the Shangri-La Dialogue

The Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore has hosted the forum since 2002, hence its name.

The Shangri-La Dialogue was conceptualized by the current IISS Director-General and Chief Executive Sir John Chipman in 2001 in response to the clear need to create a forum where the Asia Pacific defense ministers could engage in dialogue aimed at building confidence and fostering practical security cooperation.

In the SLD, the divergent point was the creation of a Track One organization. Initially, ASEAN
members were invited as part of a regional security system.

It is a strategic security dialogue that is maintained by talks between Australia, India, Japan, and the United States, commonly referred to as the Quad. In 2007, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe initiated the dialogue with the support of Australian Prime Minister John Howard, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and the United States Vice President Dick Cheney. Joint military exercises of unprecedented scale, titled Exercise Malabar, accompanied the dialogue. As a result of increased Chinese economic and military power, the diplomatic and military agreement was widely viewed as a response. In response to the Quadrilateral dialogue, the Chinese government issued formal diplomatic protests to its members, calling it the “Asian NATO“. The Indian Foreign Minister, S. Jaishankar denies China’s allegations and states that India has never had a ‘NATO mentality.

Following Australia’s withdrawal from the Quad during Kevin Rudd’s prime ministership, the Quad ceased to exist, reflecting Australian ambivalence regarding the growing tension between the United States and China in the Asia-Pacific region. Enhanced military cooperation between the United States and Australia resumed after Julia Gillard replaced Rudd in 2010, resulting in the stationing of U.S. Marines forces near Darwin, Australia. Malabar continued to be held by India, Japan, and the United States.