44 countries to attend 23rd Shangri-La Dialogue; Vietnam’s president to deliver keynote address

SINGAPORE – Forty-four countries, including 54 ministerial-level delegates, will attend the 23rd Shangri-La Dialogue, taking place from May 29 to 31 at the Shangri-La hotel in Singapore.

Vietnamese President To Lam, who is also the general secretary of his country’s Communist Party, will deliver the keynote speech on May 29, with Timor-Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta scheduled to give a special address the following day.

President Tharman Shanmugaratnam will host delegates to a reception at the Istana on May 30.

Other notable attendees include the Deputy Prime Minister of Qatar, Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who is also the Minister of State for Defence Affairs; Shanghai Cooperation Organisation secretary-general Nurlan Yermekbayev; and US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

Organised by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, the dialogue is Asia’s premier defence summit for discussing critical security challenges in the Asia-Pacific region.

Representatives from 47 countries had attended the 2025 dialogue, with French President Emmanuel Macron delivering the keynote speech that marked the first time a European leader had done so during the forum.

The event is typically attended by top defence government representatives from China and the US, making it a platform for the two superpowers to hold talks.

Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun will, however, not be attending for the second year in a row. Officials from institutes run by the People’s Liberation Army as well as the navy will represent China.

In a statement on May 28, the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) said Singapore’s Defence Minister Chan Chun Sing will speak at the final plenary session on May 31. His speech will be titled “Evolving Security Partnerships in a Fragmenting World”.

There will be six plenary sessions in all, along with three special sessions.

MINDEF added that Mr Chan will host visiting ministers to roundtable discussions on May 30 and 31, and will also host defence ministers under the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) to breakfast, as a regular feature of the dialogue.

The FPDA, which comprises Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom, took form in 1971 to safeguard the external defence of Singapore and Malaysia amid the withdrawal of British forces from Singapore.

Mr Chan will also co-host a breakfast meeting for ASEAN defence ministers with his counterpart from the Philippines, Secretary of National Defence Gilberto Teodoro Jr, MINDEF said.

The Philippines is the current ASEAN chair; Singapore will assume the role in 2027.

Mr Chan will also have bilateral meetings with ministers and senior officials from various countries on the sidelines of the dialogue, said MINDEF.

The dialogue, which began in 2002, has provided a “valuable platform for the exchange of perspectives on defence and security issues and initiatives”, said the ministry. It has also enabled like-minded nations to come together and work towards addressing new challenges, MINDEF said.

Separately, the ministry said Thai Defence Minister Adul Boonthumjaroen made his introductory visit to Singapore on May 28.

The Lieutenant-General, who is attending the dialogue, called on Mr Chan on the first day of his visit.

Both ministers reaffirmed “the close and longstanding bilateral relationship” between the two countries, as well as discussed ways to enhance defence cooperation and exchanged views on global and regional security developments.