SINGAPORE - Although one of the main topics has been the South China Sea issue at the Shangri-La Dialogue, experts and officials have agreed that the security forum is still an important platform to promote collaboration and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region.

China's Defense Ministry spokesperson Yang Yujun said the Shangri-La Dialogue, which concluded on Sunday, offered multilateral channels for governments and scholars to exchange views, while military officials and delegates could also use this platform to conduct communications to enhance mutual trust.

"It is good for better collaboration and regional security," he said.

During the three-day event, Admiral Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of the General Staff of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA), met separately with military officials and delegates from 13 countries, and exchanged views on issues such as regional security and bilateral military ties.

Organized by London-base International Institute for Strategic Studies, the Shangri-La Dialogue brought together defense ministers, senior officials and security experts to exchange views on key issues that shape the defense and security landscape of the region.

The annual security summit has been widely recognized as Asia- Pacific's foremost defense and security platform.

Just days before the forum, US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter set a strong tone by claiming that China was "out of step" with both international rules and norms that underscore the Asia- Pacific's security architecture.

However, in his speech on Saturday, the US defense chief spent most of the time talking about the importance of regional cooperation and also vowed to build better habits of US-China military-to-military cooperation, which "not only benefits both countries but the whole region as well."