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

The theme was laid out early at the security forum by the Philippines – before Australia, New Zealand and host Singapore took up the baton
But the South China Sea wasn’t the only talking point. Cambodia’s Ream naval base, the crisis in Myanmar and North Korea also got a look in

Singapore

Su-Lin Tanin Singapore

Published: 6:30pm, 2 Jun 2024

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China’s growing influence and ability to act as a peace broker took centre stage at this year’s Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, where regional leaders and defence chiefs also pushed for a renewed commitment to the global 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”.

He made the remarks while welcoming Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose surprise appearance at the event Ng said was “the epitome of what we are all hoping for: a rules-based order”.

This theme was laid out early on, with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr calling in his keynote speech to the dialogue on Friday for efforts to resolve disputes in the South China Sea to be “anchored in international law” – emphasising a landmark 2016 arbitral ruling rejecting China’s claims, which Beijing does not recognise.

The Philippines and China have been embroiled in a series of altercations in the disputed waterway in recent months over their competing territorial claims.

New Zealand’s defence minister Judith Collins referred to “challenges in maritime sovereignty” in her remarks to a plenary session at the dialogue on Sunday.

Judith Collins, New Zealand’s defence minister, at a plenary session on Sunday during the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. Photo: Bloomberg

“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”.

02:52

China warns Aukus against going down ‘dangerous road’ over nuclear-powered submarine pact

Australia is seeking an Asia-Pacific security architecture “in which no one country in our region is militarily dominant,” the defence minister added, in a reference to the Aukus pact with Britain and the US aimed at acquiring nuclear-powered submarines as a deterrent.

China’s maritime assets were further put under the spotlight on Saturday, when Cambodia’s defence chief General Tea Seiha refuted claims that Phnom Penh had allowed China to set up a permanent naval base in the Southeast Asian nation.

“There is no permanent Chinese military base in Cambodia,” he told a plenary session at the dialogue, responding to reports Chinese warships had been docked for months at Cambodia’s Ream naval base, which was recently upgraded using funds from China.

“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].”

People wave Cambodian and Chinese flags as a Chinese training ship prepares to dock during a welcome ceremony in Cambodia’s Sihanoukville last month. Photo: AFP

He further said that Cambodia supported “dialogue instead of tit-for-tat action,” pointing to Association of Southeast Asian Nations as a key platform for security discussions affecting the region.

One concern shared by both Cambodia and fellow Asean member Thailand is the conflict in Myanmar, now in its third year, as well as the proliferation of scam operations and associated human trafficking, said Thai defence minister Sutin Klungsang.

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.

Cambodia and Thailand both support Asean’s five-point consensus to end the crisis in Myanmar and have been affected, to varying degrees, by the mounting humanitarian crisis and tide of refugees resulting from the conflict.

A woman cooks next to destroyed houses and burned trees last month following fighting between Myanmar’s military and the Arakan Army ethnic minority armed group in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State. Photo: AFP

China’s ability to help resolve the Myanmar crisis featured in a special discussion session at the dialogue. But Igor Driesmans, European Union special envoy for Myanmar, said Beijing’s role must extend beyond short-term piecemeal brokering of ceasefires which could create more complications than a more long-term process.

“On the ceasefires brokered by China, I think nobody will deny that China, as a neighbouring country, has interests in Myanmar,” he said at the session on Friday. “But I think what we like to see is for efforts to be sustainable, they should be inclusive, and they should be comprehensive … partial solutions, partial ceasefires might trigger more distrust in the future.”

South Korea’s Defence Minister Shin Wonsik also said Beijing could take on “a more proactive role” in engaging with North Korea to promote denuclearisation, calling efforts so far to end North Korea’s nuclear programme “not up to our expectation”.

Ideally, in a romantic world, the South China Sea should be a zone of peace and prosperity

East Timor’s President Ramos-Horta

New Zealand’s Collins, meanwhile, raised the importance of not neglecting Pacific nations – which were thrust into the global spotlight two years ago after the Solomon Islands’ signed a security pact with China – particularly in support of their fight against illegal fishing and unlawful deep-sea mining.

And East Timor’s President Ramos-Horta said there needed to be better communication between military and political leaders to quickly de-escalate potential crises such as possible miscalculations on the Korean peninsula or in the South China Sea.

“Ideally, in a romantic world, the South China Sea should be a zone of peace and prosperity,” he said. “Crisis consultation on the code of conduct in the South China Sea should be intensified with active dialogue and bilateral negotiation.”

Additional reporting from Kimberly Lim