China’s growing influence shapes talks at Singapore’s Shangri-La Dialogue, with spotlight on rules-based order

Singapore’s Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen summed up the mood on Sunday, the final day of the three-day security forum, when he said the system of global governance in place since the end of World War II “guarantees the security and survival of large nations and small”.

“These maritime security challenges lead to an erosion of international maritime rules and norms that would have significant implications for states across the Indo-Pacific, including New Zealand’s own region,” she said.

“Ultimately, all states benefit from strong international rules and norms, and all states must ensure they are acting in ways that support those rules and norms.”

Her Australian counterpart Richard Marles agreed, calling the international rules-based order a “200-year project to build a global system that is open and inclusive”.

It “seeks to balance the concepts of sovereignty and territorial integrity with the ideas of individual liberty and equality”, he said in his address on Saturday, adding it was “not a just a device – as some would cynically suggest – to protect the prerogatives of great powers and to prevent the rise of new ones”.

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“There is nothing to hide at the Ream naval base,” he said. “The naval base is ours and while we can’t open the port for everyone to see … we have not authorised any foreign military [to be based there].”

He agreed with his Cambodian counterpart that military modernisation was important but cautioned that defence should extend beyond border security to also cover people and the economy.

China’s ability to help resolve the Myanmar crisis featured in a special discussion session at the dialogue. But Igor Driesmans, European