Four topics to dominate Singapore security forum

By AFP
03 June 2016
Four topics to dominate Singapore security forum
The skyline of the Central Business District seen from the skypark of the Marina Bay Sands integrated resort in Singapore. Photo: Wallace Woon/EPA

Defence ministers and military chiefs from around the world are attending Asia's largest annual security forum starting Friday in Singapore.
Known as the Shangri-La Dialogue, it will start with a keynote address by Thailand's Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha and will end on Sunday after a series of open and closed-door talks.
The forum is organised by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Here are four key topics likely to dominate discussions:  
- South China Sea –
Regional neighbours and other powers are fretting over what they see as China's expansionism as it rushes to exert sovereignty over the vast waters, a major global shipping route believed to be home to large oil and gas reserves. 
Four Southeast Asian states -- the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei -- have rival claims with China, which claims nearly all of the sea based on controversial historical maps.
The Philippines has filed a case against China before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague and a decision is expected in the coming weeks but China has said it will not recognise any ruling. 
- North Korea – 
The UN Security Council has strongly condemned North Korea's attempted missile launches this week and in April, urging governments to ramp up efforts to impose sanctions on Pyongyang.
UN resolutions ban North Korea from any use of ballistic missile technology, although it regularly fires short-range missiles into the sea off its east coast.
- US-China relations –
The two powers are likely to come head-to-head again at the Singapore meeting, where US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter is expected to make another tough speech that will anger China.
US officials have repeatedly accused China of fostering regional tensions in the South China Sea, but Beijing has accused Washington of militarising the area with its "freedom of navigation" patrols.
Carter has also lashed out at Chinese hacking of US companies' information systems ahead of his Singapore visit.
- Terrorism –
The rise of Islamist movements in Asia has seen hundreds of radicalised people from predominantly-Muslim countries like Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh join terror groups such as the Islamic State. 
IS even has an entire battalion comprising fighters from Southeast Asia, and governments have to grapple with returning fighters who have been fully trained in military tactics.
© AFP