Defence Minister Ron Mark calls for stronger and more meaningful security relationships at Asia's premier defence summit, the 18th Annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

Ron addressed the 2019 summit during the final plenary session on Sunday June 2, on the topic ‘Ensuring a Resilient and Stable Region', where he outlined New Zealand's perspective on defence and security matters, and the challenges facing our Pacific region, including the security implications of the climate crisis.

'With pressure on the international rules based order, the opportunity presented by the Shangri-La Dialogue to come together, consider global security challenges, understand individual motivations, forge genuine people-to-people links, and strengthen our contemporary security architecture is of increasing importance,” says Ron.

While in Singapore, Mark held bilateral meetings with several counterparts including Australia, China, Canada, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Timor Leste, the United Kingdom and Vietnam, in addition to the European Union, the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat and NATO.

Ron's address to the summit can be found here:

https://www.beehive.govt.nz/speech/speech-18th-shangri-la-dialogue-ensuring-resilient-and-stable-region