The third Indo-Pacific Health Alliance for Security (IPhas) Summit was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in June 2026, bringing together civilian, military and nongovernmental leaders from across 20 nations to strengthen regional health security cooperation.
Hosted by the Malaysian Armed Forces, the two-day summit focused on Civil-Military Collaboration for Whole-of-Society Resilience and explored how countries can better prepare, coordinate and respond together during complex health security emergencies.
The summit brought together representatives from across the Indo-Pacific region to discuss shared priorities, including crisis preparedness, civil-military coordination, biosurveillance, emergency response and regional resilience. These discussions reinforced the importance of practical cooperation between defence forces, civilian authorities, public health agencies and partner organisations in preparing for future health security threats.
The Global Health Security Network was pleased to participate alongside regional and international partners, contributing to conversations on strengthening collaboration and building more coordinated, country-owned approaches to preparedness and response across the Indo-Pacific.
As part of the summit, participants also took part in a multinational exercise testing responses to major crisis scenarios. The exercise supported participants to identify coordination gaps, strengthen shared approaches to emergency response and consider how defence forces can support civilian authorities during large-scale emergencies.
The summit highlighted the continued importance of regional partnerships, practical capability-building and whole-of-society approaches to strengthening health security.
