The three-day Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual Asia-Pacific defense and security summit, will come to an end today (Sunday) in Singapore. Chinese Admiral Sun Jianguo, who's leading the Chinese delegation, will deliver a speech this morning.

The vice chief of staff of China's People's Liberation Army will address the challenges of conflict resolution, and China's active defense strategy. Meanwhile, defence ministers, military chiefs and officials from more than 30 countries will continue discussion on pursuing common security objectives.

A closing luncheon will be held in the afternoon. Our correspondent Miro Lu in Singapore has been following the event, and reports on Saturday's highlights.

On the second day of the Shanghri-La Dialogue, US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter gives a speech that is peppered with the word “principle”.

To be exact, the word “principle”appears 37 times during Carter’s hour-long speech “Managing Asia’s Complex Security Challenges”.

 "This is a principled security network. It is inclusive, since any nation and any military – no matter its capability, budget, or experience – can contribute. Everyone gets a voice, no one is excluded, and hopefully, no one excludes themselves. And as this security network reflects the principles our countries have collectively promoted and upheld for decades, it will help us realize the principled future that many in the region have chosen, and are working toward together," said Ashton Carter, US defense secretary.

I ask Professor Zhu Feng, who is an expert on the South China Sea issue and a regular delegate at the Shangri-La Dialogue, about his takeaway from the speech and whether Mr Carter has toned down his hard-line comments towards China as some analysts predicted. 
 
"I have to say yes essential tone Carter presented in this morning’s speech sounds quite soft, but word selection, word using are very malicious.  I think Mr Carter used very tough words describing China as some sort of leading violator of regional security in term of norm, structure and order, so he frequently refer to the principle, rule, norm, those words frequently appeared in this speech. I think by siding with these words, I think Mr Carter wants to create some sort of new image, that image of China is of course dark, is provocative and assertive," said professor Zhu Feng.

Professor Zhu also says Shangri-La Dialogue is a stage of public diplomacy. Therefore Chinese Admiral Sun Jianguo’s speech on Sunday morning will be spotlighted, when Admiral Sun gets to present China’s position, express China’s concerns and lay out China’s counter arguments.