Police stand guard outside the venue of IISS Shangri-La Dialogue security summit in Singapore, May 30, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Barely weeks after the ceasefire between the two militaries following Operation Sindoor, Indian Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan and Pakistan’s Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) General Shamshad Mirza will address parallel sessions at the Shangri-La Dialogue conference in Singapore on Saturday (May 31, 2025).
While the military leaders are not expected to meet, the four-day conflict that broke out when India launched strikes on terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan, is likely to be one of the issues discussed at the conference, which is hosted annually by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies. French President Emmanuel Macron gave a keynote address on Friday (May 29, 2025), and U.S. Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim will both address the conference on Saturday.
General Chauhan will speak along with military chiefs from Brazil, Germany, Ukraine, and the U.S.’s Indo-Pacific Command chief at a panel on ‘Defence Innovation Solutions for Future Challenges’, where the development and use of drone warfare, cyber ware, and artificial intelligence are likely to be discussed. In a simultaneous session, General Mirza will be part of a panel with military counterparts and officials from Canada, Fiji, and the Pacific Islands Forum, speaking about ‘Regional Crisis Management Mechanisms’.
Troop reduction
In an interview to Reuters on the sidelines of the conference in Singapore on Friday, General Mirza said that troop levels at the border had “almost come back” to the situation prior to the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22.
“This [conflict] lowers the threshold between two countries who are contiguous nuclear powers,” General Mirza was quoted as saying in the interview. “In the future, it will not be restricted to the disputed territory. It would come down to [the] whole of India and [the] whole of Pakistan,” he said, calling the situation a “dangerous trend” and adding that Pakistan is “open to dialogue” with India.
The Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Defence did not comment on the interview. On Thursday (May 28, 2025), however, the MEA had rejected Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif’s suggestion of talks, saying that India would only talk to Pakistan about the return of wanted terrorists and Pakistani troops vacating Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and no other talks are possible until Pakistan stops supporting terror groups on its territory. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also rejected Pakistan’s “nuclear blackmail” in a speech in May, adding that any terrorist attack in the future would be seen as an “act of war” that India would respond to.
New American ambitions
Mr. Hegseth’s speech on the U.S.’s “new ambitions” for Indo-Pacific security will also be closely watched at the conference that brings U.S. and Chinese defence officials on the same platform. In particular, the Trump administration’s vision for the Quad Summit that India is hosting this year will be significant.
China is being represented by Major General Hu Gangfeng, vice president of the National Defense University, who will speak at another parallel session at the same time as General Chauhan’s session. He is expected to speak about managing nuclear proliferation risks in the region. This is the first time in recent years that China has not sent a high-level delegation to the conference that has often provided a venue for U.S.-China talks.
A note issued by the Ministry of Defence said that, during his visit to Singapore, General Chauhan will also hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Australia, the European Union, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
(with inputs from Devesh K. Pandey)
Published – May 30, 2025 07:52 pm IST
