The Asia Security Summit, better known as the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue, concluded in Singapore on Sunday.

“The most important thing is the participation of the Defense Minister from China. In the past years, we had a lot of discussion but the subject of the discussion, namely China, did not have a very high-level representative. So this year, with the Chinese Defense Minister here, we are able to listen to a much more authoritative voice,” Ong Keng Yong, executive deputy chairman of RSIS, said.

“The main takeaway from this year’s dialogue is the United States and China continue to talk over each other regarding political, security and ideological matters. It is interesting that the views of both countries actually arrive at common ground more than they care to recognize,” said Dr Graham Ong-Webb, adjunct fellow at RSIS.

Shawn Ho, an expert on the Korean Peninsula and an associate research fellow at RSIS, said he “expected more from the dialogue about the Korean Peninsular issue” and expected more “suggestions on how to move past the current stalemate in US-DPRK dialogue and negotiations.”