"We need to go beyond words," Malaysia's Defence Minister Najib Razak said at an international security conference in Singapore.

"We need to encourage a greater level of cooperation in a variety of areas, which would enhance our notion of a security community," Najib said at the annual high-level meeting known as the Shangri-La Dialogue.

His counterpart from Singapore, Teo Chee Hean, said "multilateral dialogue is an important process for defining and clarifying the regional security agenda" but also called for more concrete forms of cooperation.

Disagreements exist but areas of agreement can serve as a basis for the next phase of cooperation, he said.

"That next step must be to productively channel the momentum generated by shared perspectives and shared interests to the development of practical cooperation and the building of capacities to tackle the threats and challenges," Teo said.

Disaster and humanitarian-relief operations, peace-support operations, counter-proliferation efforts as well as maritime security are areas where cooperative action can be undertaken, Teo said.