The Shangri-La dialogue hosted addresses from both China's Minister of National Defence Wei Fenghe and United States Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin.
Austin spoke on the US defence policy in the Indo-Pacific while Wei outlined China's vision for regional order and stability.
Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles said he would use the conference in Singapore to engage in robust conversations on the strategic challenges of the region as he seeks to set up several bilateral meetings on the sidelines, including with his US counterpart.
"Australia remains committed to working with our partners across the region to promote our shared interests of a peaceful, inclusive and resilient Indo- Pacific," he said.
SBS News reports that US Federal Bureau of Investigation deputy director Paul Abbate says countries like China, Iran and Russia are increasingly using criminals and nefarious actors as proxies to launch attacks on Western nations.
"It's not just a matter of providing safe haven to criminals and getting in the way of the justice ... it goes beyond that," he told Sky News.
"Russia, China, Iran, actually leverage criminals, nefarious cyber actors, to commit attacks against our countries to steal or more, to break the laws within our countries."