High-Level Conference Indo-Pacific 2025: Prevention and Dialogue

17 June 2025

14,00 – 14,30 CET         Participants Arrival and Registration
14,30 – 15,00              Welcome Remarks

• Alessandro Minuto-Rizzo, President, NATO Defense College Foundation, Rome *
• Max Nielsen, Commandant, NATO Defense College, Rome
• Nicolò Russo Perez, Director, Fondazione CSF, Turin

 15,00 – 15,10  Opening Remarks

•  Claudio Palestini, Head Science for Peace and Security and Programme Management and Coordination Unit, NATO HQ, Brussels

 15,10 – 16,10

First Panel : The Indo-Pacific and its partnerships

The Indo-Pacific is lacking a shared security vision and architecture, while different partnerships are characterising the region. How can existing partnerships be developed in order to ensure security? At the Washington Summit in July 2024 the four regional partners were invited again. What role for the new Indo-Pacific partners? How could new and old ones work together with other groupings? By which means confidence building measures can be set up and security cooperation fostered?

Moderator: Luis Simón, former NATO country Co-Director, SPS Multi-Year Programme on Indo-Pacific, Madrid 

• Cha Du Hyeogn, Chief, Center for Foreign Policy and National Security, Asan Institute for Policy Studies, Seoul
• Kaush Arha, President of the Free & Open Indo-Pacific Forum, Institute for Tech Diplomacy, Atlantic Council, Washington *
• Christina Lin, Visiting Scholar, Anderson Forecast, UCLA Anderson School of Management, Los Angeles
• Javier Colomina, Deputy Assistant SG, Political Affairs and Security Policy Division, NATO, Brussels

 Q&A Session

16,30 – 17,00                Coffee Break 

17,00 – 18,00

Second Panel : The hybrid dimension

The Indo-Pacific region has developed an intense hybrid warfare activity since the fall of the Soviet Union (Iraq, Afghanistan, war on terror, Korea and recently in Pacific hotspots), dating back to very long-standing traditions. What are the specifics of the region? Which NATO experiences can be applied and which innovations are required? Is it possible to conceive regional centres to combat disinformation and hybrid threats across the board?

Moderator: Bec Shrimpton, Director, The Sydney Dialogue, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Canberra

• Ciaran Martin, Distinguished Fellow; Former Chief Executive Officer, National Cyber Security, RUSI, London
• Una Aleksandra Bērziņa-Čerenkova, Head, Asia Program, Latvian Institute of International Affairs, Riga
• Claudia Plattner, President, Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), Bonn
• Mihoko Matsubara, Chief Cybersecurity Strategist, NTT, Tokyo *

Q&A Session

18 June 2025

10,00 – 10,30 CET        Participants Arrival and Registration
10,30 – 10,40              Special intervention

Alessandra Schiavo, Deputy Director General and Principal Director for the Countries of Asia and Oceania, Directorate General for Global Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Rome

10,40 – 11,40

Third panel: Emerging and mutating challenges

 The relations between China and the USA are the visible part of an overall regional security dimension that includes persistent challenges: subversion, organised crime, climate change and illegal trafficking. They are all identified either sooner or later by NATO’s summit declarations or by different strategic concepts. What are the main impacts of these challenges on the area? How can allies and partners better combine their efforts? Can these challenges be part of a wider security dialogue?

Moderator: Nina Silove, Senior Researcher, Center for Security Studies, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich

• Tim Edmunds, Director, Safe Seas, Copenhagen
• Monika Sie Dhian Ho, General Director, Clingendael Institute, Den Haag
• Peter Neumann, Professor of Security Studies, Department of War Studies, King’s College, London
• Seiichiro Takagi, Senior Research Adviser, Japanese Institute for International Affairs, Tokyo

 Q&A Session

 11,40 – 11,50               Closing Remarks

Nunzia Ciardi, Deputy Director, Cabinet Office, National Cybersecurity Agency, Rome

Organised by the NATO Defense College Foundation in cooperation with the Center for Security Studies – ETH Zürich,  the NATO Defense College,  ICEED and Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo in media partnership with Adnkronos and Formiche