Forget the stuffy meetings — America’s defence chief says it’s the troops on deck who really matter as Asia’s biggest security summit kicks off.

US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth hit the ground running in Singapore on Friday, even squeezing in a workout with navy personnel aboard the USS Boxer before Asia’s top defence shindig gets underway.

The Shangri-La Dialogue pulls in defence ministers, diplomats and security bigwigs from all over the globe, and this weekend’s edition looks set to be a spicy one.

Before diving into the formalities, Hegseth had a few candid words for the US troops with him:

"We're going to be sitting in a bunch of meetings today, talking to a lot of ministers of defence. Some of it's going to be great, some of it is going to be really boring. But it's important to build our alliances with our allies and what we're doing out here. But none of it matters. Literally, none of those meeting's matter. They're important, they're significant. Sent here on behalf of the President Donald Trump. None of it matter without what you do.”

Translation: the meetings are necessary, but the real work happens with the men and women in uniform.

So, what’s on the table this weekend? Top of the list is China’s rapid military build-up across the Indo-Pacific, plus a few nerves about where exactly US priorities lie right now. And that’s not all — fresh flare-ups in the Middle East are threatening a shaky ceasefire, while Russia keeps ramping up its war in Ukraine.

Vietnamese leader To Lam gets things started on Friday with the keynote address. Then on Saturday, Hegseth steps up to outline the Trump administration’s Indo-Pacific game plan. The Pentagon says his speech will push a “common-sense approach to safeguarding US vital national interests in the Indo-Pacific.”

In other words, buckle up — it’s going to be a packed weekend in Singapore.

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