IAG Executive Director Benedicto Bacani is attending the 7^th Malaysian–German Security Dialogue, a meeting of experts and decision-makers from Malaysia and Germany happening on August 29-30, 2018 in Kuala Lumpur.

Bacani is speaking on August 30 at a plenary session entitled “Peace Process and Progress in the Sulu Sea”, during which developments following the recent passage of the Bangsamoro Organic Law and likely alternatives for dealing with the Sulu Sea cauldron of security challenges, including militancy, terrorism and criminality, and the continuing Philippine claim to Sabah will be discussed.

The two-day closed-door conference will primarily look at the transitioning global order, with resurgent China, Russia, Japan and India, but “indecisive” United States in the bigger picture, as well as the challenges and policy directions of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, prospects of the Iran nuclear deal and Western alliance in the Gulf region, denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, mass migration across borders that remains a problem for Europe and Southeast Asia, and the future of EU and the ASEAN community.

A platform for experts and decision-makers from Malaysia and Germany to network and form possible bilateral cooperation, the conference also seeks to offer ideas and possible conflict resolutions to a selection of most pressing and emerging security risks of common concern to the two countries and the world generally.

Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Malaysia Office and the Institute of Strategic and International Studies, organizers of the 7^th Malaysian–German Security Dialogue, hope to bring the overall dialogue of the conference into a wider regional context of Europe and Southeast Asia.