Reuters breaks news on top stories from security conference

When dozens of defense ministers and generals descended on Singapore May 29 for the annual Asia Security Conference at the Shangri-La Hotel, Reuters captured exclusive multimedia interviews with officials whose basic instinct is for secrecy. Pakistan’s secretary of defense, Syed Athar Ali, told Reuters why his country’s nuclear weapons could not fall into militant hands. And as the main town in the Swat valley fell under government control, he confidently predicted that the government offensive would wrap up within a week. Indonesian Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono said in an interview he was in talks to buy Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport planes, and expected to be in the market for fighter jets and submarines in the next 2-3 years. Sri Lanka’s foreign minister told Reuters the end of the civil war will help boost economic growth by 3 percentage points a year as better security lures back investors to the island, and Britain’s defense minister Ann Taylor talked to Reuters about moves to impose fresh U.N. sanctions on North Korea after its series of provocations in late May. Reuters issued 16 alerts and more than 20 stories on the “Shangri-La Dialogue”, Asia’s premier security conference.