The fourth and last of the parallel sessions of Day One of the Dialogue will explore the nuances of “Lawfare and Geoeconomics in the Indo-Pacific” — a subject whose contemporary relevance and future criticality cannot be overstated.

The five panellists for this session are, once again, all renowned subject-matter experts, drawn from countries of the Indo-Pacific for whom this theme has particular and immediate relevance, namely:

(1) Australia
Captain Sean Andrews, RAN, Director, Sea Power Centre-Australia, Royal Australian Navy, Department of Defence;

(2) China
Dr Yan Yan, Director, Research Center for Ocean Law and Policy, National Institute for South China Sea Studies (NISCSS), Haikou, Hainan;

(3) France
Dr (Ms) Melissa Levaillant, Regional Affairs Directorate, South Asia, Directorate-General for International Relations and Strategy [DGRIS]);

(4) Singapore
Dr (Ms) Jane Git Yin CHAN, Research Fellow and Coordinator, Maritime Security Programme, The S Rajaratnam Institute of Strategic Studies [RSiS]), and

(5) India
Mr Suriya Narayanan, Associate Fellow, National Maritime Foundation, New Delhi.

Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Murali S Pawar, AVSM, VSM, IN, would moderate the discussions.

What we have asked each panellist of this session to do is to,

(a) Cogently present his/her own perspective of the term ‘Lawfare’;

(b) Dilate upon the manner in which international maritime public law is being used — within the Indo-Pacific — by nation-states in order to advance geostrategies designed to attain their geoeconomic objectives; and

(c) Expound upon how he/she sees future Indo-Pacific maritime interactions being shaped by this sort of manipulation of the international legal system for geoeconomic ends.