Militaries have to work with other government agencies to fight increasingly complex, transnational and non-conventional threats, Second Minister for Defence Lui Tuck Yew said yesterday.

Delivering the keynote speech at the 17th annual Asia Pacific Programme for Senior Military Officers, he said that the Internet has enabled the global spread of radical ideologies such as that espoused by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

“Some 30,000 foreign fighters from 90 countries have joined ISIS to date, and the number continues to grow… Alarming inroads have been made (in South-east Asia), with more than 700 Indonesians and over 200 Malaysians joining ISIS,” he said.

… The event yesterday, held at The Singapore Resort and Spa Sentosa, was organised by the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies and its unit, the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies.