A high-profile Asia-Pacific security summit being attended by top leaders and officials from the region was briefly put on lockdown today after police shot dead a man near the venue as he tried to flee a checkpoint in a car which was later found to contain drugs.
The three-day Shangri-La Dialogue, attended by Minister of State for Defence Rao Inderjit Singh and US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter along with counterparts from around the world, ended at midday today.
In the pre-dawn incident, near the Shangri-La Hotel, the venue of the conference, a man was shot dead and two others were detained.
The trio was earlier stopped at a police vehicular checkpoint set up along Ardmore Park, the entrance to the hotel, where international dignitaries including defence ministers and armed forces chiefs were attending the annual conference.
Police said all three men were Singaporeans.
No explosives, arms or weapons were found in the car involved in the incident. Police and officers from Singapore Armed Forces’ (SAF) Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Explosives Defence Group (CBRE DG) searched the vehicle.
A bag containing white powdery substances believed to contain controlled drugs was recovered from the car.
The driver of the Singapore-registered red car was a 34-year-old man who was pronounced dead at scene after police fired shots when the vehicle did not stopped for the mandatory security check.
Two men — aged 26 and 31 — who were passengers in the vehicle, were arrested.
The 31-year-old man sustained injuries during the incident and was moved to a hospital.
The driver and one of the passengers were wanted by the authorities for various offences.
Preliminary investigations indicated that it was an isolated incident.
After the shooting incident the hotel was on complete lockdown, with no entry allowed.
Roads and pathways leading up to the hotel, located in Singapore’s diplomatic area, were shut off with barricade tape.
But access to the venue was later allowed and the conference resumed at 9:00 am (local time).
Singapore Defence Minister Dr Ng Eng Hen closed the conference after lunch.
Defence Ministers, Chiefs of Armed Forces from Asia, Europe and the United States, addressed the Shangri-La Dialogue. Minister of State for Defence Singh also addressed the meeting yesterday.
The conference started on May 29 and the main focus of the Asia Pacific security and defence as well as territorial claims to the South China Sea.
In his concluding address, Ng pointed out that the international system “as we know it is in flux for Asia today.”
China and India are no longer poor, at least not in aggregate terms, and certainly not marginalised by the Cold War or sequestered behind the Bamboo Curtain, he said.
China is now the world’s second largest economy in nominal terms. India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has more than tripled since the turn of the century, exceeding countries like Canada and Russia. Japan is the third largest economy in the world, Ng noted.
New institutions and bold initiatives have emerged from this shift and will be new engines to drive development in the region in this new century, he said.
The initiatives include China-led BRICS or New Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, as well as the Japanese offer of $ 100 billion to Asian infrastructure funding through collaboration with the Asian Development Bank, he added.