SINGAPORE, Tuesday 24 January 2017 – Brigadier General (U) Dato Seri Pahlawan Haji Hamzah bin Haji Sahat, Joint Force Commander, Royal Brunei Armed Forces and Lieutenant Colonel Haji Damit bin Haji Bakar, Director of Intelligence attended the fifth series of the Fullerton Forum, the Shangri-La Dialogue Sherpa meeting on 22-24 January 2017.
The Fullerton Forum was organised by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in support and preparation of the Shangri-la Dialogue to be held on 02-04 June 2017.
During the opening of the meeting, the Defence Minister of Malaysia, Datuk Seri Hishamudin Hussein addressed the attendees of this year’s forum with a keynote. In his speech, he encouraged the Fullerton Forum to address challenges and shared the five main challenges namely the rise of populism, continued challenge of DAESH, humanitarian crises, cyber security as well as environmental issues. He also called for a reaffirmed commitment to multilateralism, renewed counter-terrorism efforts and stronger cyber-security initiatives.
The forum’s agenda also included a special dinner address by Major General (Rtd) Delfin Lorenzana, Secretary of National Defence of the Philippines.
The forum is an avenue for the participants to express a wide range of opinions on various topics related to the key regional security concerns. More than 80 senior defence and government officials as well as non-governmental experts from universities and think-tanks from Asia Pacific countries participated in the forum.
The IISS Fullerton Forum: The Shangri-La Dialogue Sherpa Meeting forms part of an enhanced Shangri-La Dialogue process intended to help ensure that the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue remains at the forefront of defence diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific region, where the policy ideas expressed at each Shangri-La Dialogue are fully examined as part of the growing IISS research programme on Asia-Pacific security.
