The Maritime Institute of Malaysia (MIMA) with the support of the Australian High Commission in Malaysia and the Embassy of Japan in Malaysia will conduct the Indo-Pacific Ocean Governance: Roundtable on Conflict De-escalation in the Indo-Pacific: Southeast Asian States’ Perspectives on 18 October 2023 (Wednesday) at the InterContinental Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The first edition of the annual international forum was held in Kuala Lumpur in 2019. It successfully gathered think tank experts from across the region in addition to security practitioners and government officials from Malaysia to discuss a wide array of issues concerning the Indo-Pacific’s maritime domain and geopolitical developments.

The 2023 Roundtable aims to continue such efforts to bring together experts and practitioners from Japan, Australia, the United States (US), India, and ASEAN for an exchange of information and perspectives on conflict de-escalation in the Indo-Pacific, in hope that the synergies between these states can be enhanced to prevent an armed conflict against the intensifying great power tensions in the region’s maritime domain. This discourse may cultivate a middle ground that these states can pursue whilst at the same time protecting their own national security interests.