US defence secretary Pete Hegseth delivers his speech during 22nd Shangri-La Dialogue summit in Singapore (Image credit: AP)
China and North Korea’s support for Russia in its war against Ukraine has exposed how lines between regions have blurred, and the need for a global approach toward defense, top security officials said Sunday.
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North Korea has sent troops to fight on the front lines in Ukraine, while China has supported Russia economically and technologically while opposing international sanctions. Lithuanian defence minister Dovilė Šakalienė told delegates at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s premiere defence forum, that if Ukraine were to fall, it would have a ripple effect in Asia and suggested it could embolden China in its territorial claims on Taiwan and virtually the entire South China Sea. “If Russia prevails in Ukraine, it’s not about Europe. It’s not about one region,” she said. “It will send a very clear signal also to smaller states here in Indo-Pacific that anyone can ignore their borders, that any fabricated excuse can justify invasion.”
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The comments echoed those from French President Emmanuel Macron as he opened the conference on Friday advocating for greater European engagement in the Indo-Pacific. On Saturday, US defence secretary Pete Hegseth suggested European countries should focus their defence efforts in their own region and leave the Indo-Pacific more to the US, but Šakalienė said the regions were clearly intertwined.
“It’s not a secret that when we talk about the main perpetrators in cyber security against Japan it’s China, Russia and North Korea,” she said. “When we talk about main cyber security perpetrators against Lithuania it’s Russia, China and Belarus – two out of the three are absolutely the same.” She added that “the convergence of Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea into an increasingly coordinated authoritarian axis,” demands a unified response.
Iran has been a k
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