Rumsfeld changes tone

It would be going too far to describe Donald Rumsfeld as chastened by recent events, but the US defence secretary was more than usually mild in his rhetoric and accommodating in his policy pronouncements when he attended the annual Asia security meeting, the Shangri-La Dialogue, in Singapore at the weekend. At the conference, organised by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, Mr Rumsfeld could not resist a passing swipe at Iran, which he described as “the leading terrorist nation in the world”. He criticised the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, which brings together central Asian nations with China and Russia and is aimed largely at combating terror, for considering the possibility of Iranian membership.

FT