Singapore has seen a significant increase in the number of local people infected with the new coronavirus over the past few days, with many of these cases linked to the cluster of infections at Singapore Changi International Airport. The situation is threatening Singapore’s ability to successfully host a major international conference.
The organizers of the annual Shangri-La Security Dialogue, the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, sent out invitations for interviews and registration information to the media on Thursday (May 13, 2021) as preparations continue for the Dialogue, which will be held from 4 to 5 next month. However, on the same day, the Singapore Ministry of Health (MOH) announced that as of noon on the same day, Singapore had 32 new cases of new coronavirus infections, including 24 local infections, the highest number of daily local infections in the past 10 months or so.
The Ministry of Health also said that 17 of the new daily infections were associated with the Changi International Airport cluster. To date, a total of 43 people in this cluster have been infected with New Coronavirus.
The Shangri-La Security Dialogue, which began in 2002, has grown to become the largest security forum in the Indo-Pacific region. Each year, the dialogue attracts senior government officials and senior defense experts from the region and around the world. Most of them fly in at Changi International Airport. The organizers canceled last year’s dialogue due to the new crown pandemic.
The U.S. Department of Defense announced last week that Defense Secretary Austin will attend this year’s Shangri-La Security Dialogue on the ground and deliver a speech titled “Advancing the U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy,” while taking the opportunity to attend the annual meeting to reinvigorate U.S. relations with regional allies and partners.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby was asked at a press conference last Wednesday (May 5, 2021) whether it was worth the risk for Defense Secretary Austin to lead a delegation to Singapore to attend the Dialogue while the New Crown pandemic remains in place. He replied that the defense secretary himself and the officials and staff around him were fully vaccinated against New Crown and that the hosts had made adequate arrangements for health risk preparedness, and that the U.S. was comfortable with the arrangements.
China also sent its defense minister to lead a delegation to the annual Shangri-La Dialogue in earlier years, but after China began a major island-building and militarization campaign in the South China Sea that became a major topic of conversation at the annual Dialogue, Beijing rarely sends senior officials to the Dialogue anymore, sending only lower-ranking military academy officials to lead delegations to the meetings.
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