The IISS Asia Security Summit: The Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD) is a "Track One" inter-governmental security conference held annually in Singapore by an independent think tank, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). The dialogue is commonly attended by defence ministers, permanent heads of ministries and military chiefs of mostly Asia-Pacific states. The forum's name is derived from the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore, where it has been held since 2002. The summit serves to cultivate a sense of community among the most important policymakers in the defence and security community in the region. Government delegations have made the best out of the meeting by holding bilateral meetings with other delegations on the sidelines of the conference. While primarily an inter-governmental meeting, the summit is also attended by legislators, academic experts, distinguished journalists and business delegates. Over the years, the Shangri-La Dialogue has become one of the most important independent forums for the exchange of views by international security policy decision-makers. Besides the host nation, countries that have participated in the dialogue have included Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States and Vietnam. History Background Prior to the first summit, Asia lacked a regional security framework like Europe. Earlier in 1996, US Defence Secretary William Perry and Thai Defence Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh each proposed separate initiatives to gather their counterparts in Asia but came to nothing. The only Track One multilateral Asian security forum was the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which was found to be unwieldy since it focused on confidence-building and at worst, little more than a talkshop. In addition, the ARF was led by foreign ministers, leaving defence diplomacy and security cooperation in the region somewhat in want for a mechanism for defence ministers to interact. The SLD was conceived by the current IISS Director-General and Chief Executive Sir John Chipman in 2001 in response to the clear need for a forum where the Asia Pacific defence ministers could engage in dialogue aimed at building confidence and fostering practical security cooperation. During the 36th Munich Conference on Security Policy, Chipman 'noticed Asian officials receiving short shrift' and realised that 'Asia needed its own defence institution at which defence ministers met and spoke'. Initially the SLD was modelled after the Munich Conference on