Chill in the air at summit amid regional tensions

Greg Torode, chief Asia correspondent in Singapore

Few seem ready to use the phrase "new cold war" but the atmosphere is decidedly frigid at the region's annual informal security summit in Singapore this weekend.

The deepening chill in Sino-US military relations and tensions over the North Korean torpedoing of a South Korean warship are conspiring to ensure, as one delegate noted, that "ice is dripping from the walls" of the so-called Shangri-La Dialogue.

In previous years the gathering of government, military and academic leaders from the wider region has been hailed as a triumph of informal networking over the usually rigid confines of military diplomacy.

This year, however, the event organised by the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies is bringing fresh tensions across the region into sharp relief - with China in the middle of them.

Beijing has long avoided sending a high-powered delegation to an event dominated by the US and its allies and friends. But in recent years its prominence has grown as senior PLA officials repeatedly defend China's military modernisation and question the need for cold war-era alliances, while expanding their own diplomacy on the sidelines.

But organisers and delegates say China is planning to keep a deliberately low profile this year, holding fewer bilateral meetings than usual and avoiding press events.

A speech today by delegation head, deputy chief of the PLA General Staff Ma Xiaotian , will still be one of the most closely watched events.

But this year, of course, he will not be meeting today's other big speaker, US Defence Secretary Dr Robert Gates, nor will any of their underlings meet - a reflection of the fact that Gates' long-planned visit to Beijing after the dialogue has been scrapped.

Any sense of optimism that may have surrounded the meeting in Beijing two weeks ago between Ma and US Pacific commander Admiral Robert Willard has evaporated.

"The reality is that the meeting did not go well at all in terms of advancing hopes of a sense of normality returning to the military relationship," said one official in the administration of US President Barack Obama.

"China knows we want to get things back on an even keel but it is just not happening, despite progress elsewhere." Beijing halted military exchanges in the wake of Obama's decisions to push ahead with new arms sales to Taiwan and meet the Dalai Lama in the White House earlier this year.

Significantly, China's reticence and ongoing concern at US alliance-building is not curbing Gates' charm offensive with other countries.

Even before the event had formally opened, Gates embarked on a flurry of back-room diplomacy with both old allies and newer friends on China's borders, yesterday meeting his counterparts from South Korea, India, Indonesia and former enemy but new military interest, Vietnam.

Korean tensions also cloud China's involvement, with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak the most senior regional leader present.

In a speech to formally open the event last night, Lee warned that "while the cold war is over, the threats still remain".

He urged China to use its "special relationship" with the North to push for fresh pledges of peace from Pyongyang in the wake of the sinking.

Specifically, Seoul is also urging Beijing not to veto fresh measures against the North through the UN Security Council. Lee confirmed that South Korea had referred the sinking case to the Security Council. He warned that if the attack was condoned over time in the name of stability "we would be fooling ourselves that North Korea would once again resort ? to attacking others".

Reflecting on his meeting in Seoul with Prime Minister Wen Jiabao last weekend, he said he was confident China would live up to its growing role as a responsible global power.

Lee Chung-min, an adviser to President Lee and his Ambassador for International Security Affairs, told the South China Morning Post earlier that the traditionally secretive Sino-North Korean relationship did not reflect well on a China that now had "great aspirations in the world". "China's actions are seen as a crucial barometer in understanding China's greater role in the world," he said.

While South Korean officials will not be meeting with their Chinese counterparts this weekend, they will take part in only the second three-way meeting of defence ministers from Japan, South Korea and the US.

In its ninth year, 29 nations will attend the summit - including Russia, Australia and Myanmar. North Korea is conspicuous by its absence.