On June 2 – 4 Vice Minister of National Defence Žilvinas Tomkus conducted a visit to Singapore where he attended Shangri-La Dialogue 2023, a conference dedicated to security in the Indo-Pacific and the world.
This year Lithuania had its first ever privilege to premiere the national approach at one of the world’s largest security forums. Vice Minister was invited to attend as a speaker in one of the sessions dedicated to cyber threats and technological competition. Žilvinas Tomkus underscored that the war in Ukraine had demonstrated how cyber and disruptive innovation technologies in national defence had to be viewed not as a separate solution but as military enablers that had to be integrated into existing and developed capabilities.
In the course of the visit in Singapore Vice Minister met with representatives of Ministries of Defence of the countries in the region (Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore) to discuss the security situation in different regions, as well as development of bilateral cooperation with representatives of Switzerland in ensuring assistance to Ukraine, and the challenges of joining the International Maritime Security Construct (IMSC) in the Strait of Hormuz.
Vice Minister Žilvinas Tomkus also had a meeting with the former Deputy Secretary (Policy) of the Ministry of Defense of Singapore Teo Eng Dih, currently in charge of the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, and presented to him the National Defence System Medal of Merit. Vice Minister thanked him for the contribution in promoting defence cooperation between Lithuania and Singapore and wished him to retain the same level of ambition in developing partnership with Klaipėda State Seaport.
Photo credit: MoD
