About the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting Plus
Establishment
The ADMM-Plus is a platform for ASEAN and its eight Dialogue Partners Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Russia and the United States (collectively referred to as the “Plus Countries”), to strengthen security and defence cooperation for peace, stability, and development in the region. The Inaugural ADMM-Plus was convened in Ha Noi, Viet Nam, on 12 October 2010.
Since 2017, the ADMM-Plus meets annually, to allow enhanced dialogue and cooperation among ASEAN and the Plus Countries in the midst of an increasingly challenging regional security environment.
Objectives
The objectives of the ADMM-Plus, are:
- To benefit ASEAN Member States in building capacity to address shared security challenges, while cognisant of the differing capacities of various ASEAN Member States;
- To promote mutual trust and confidence between defence establishments through greater dialogue and transparency;
- To enhance regional peace and stability through cooperation in defence and security, in view of the transnational security challenges the region faces;
- To contribute to the realisation of an ASEAN Security Community which, as stipulated in the Bali Concord II, embodies ASEAN’s aspiration to achieve peace, stability, democracy and prosperity in the region where ASEAN Member States live at peace with one another and with the world at large;
- To facilitate the implementation of the Vientiane Action Programme, which calls for ASEAN to build a peaceful, secure and prosperous ASEAN, and to adopt greater outward-looking external relation strategies with our friends and Dialogue Partners.
Achievements
The ADMM-Plus has become an effective platform for practical cooperation among the participating countries’ defence establishments. The ADMM-Plus currently focuses on seven areas of practical cooperation, namely maritime security (MS), counter-terrorism (CT), humanitarian assistance and disaster management (HADR), peacekeeping operations (PKO), military medicine (MM), humanitarian mine action (HMA) and cyber security (CS). Experts’ Working Groups (EWGs) have been established to facilitate cooperation in these areas. The EWGs are each co-chaired by one ASEAN Member States and one Plus Country, operating in a three-year cycle. Below are the key deliverables of the seven EWGs since its inception:
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EWG |
2011-2013 |
2014-2017 |
2017-2020 |
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Maritime Security |
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Counter-Terrorism |
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Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief |
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Peacekeeping Operations |
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Military Medicine |
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Humanitarian Mine Action |
— |
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Cyber Security |
— |
— |
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Membership
The Concept Paper on ADMM-Plus: Principles for Membership, adopted at the 3rd ADMM, Pattaya, 25-27 February 2009 outlines the principles for membership to the ADMM-Plus process, as follows:
- The Plus country shall be a full-fledged Dialogue Partner of ASEAN;
- The Plus country shall have significant interactions and relations with ASEAN defence establishment; and
- The Plus country shall be able to work with the ADMM to build capacity so as to enhance regional security in a substantive way in order to promote capacity-building in the region in the fields of defence and security.
ADMM-Plus Chair
The Chairmanship of the ADMM-Plus follows that of the ADMM and ASEAN.
The current Chairmen of the ADMM-Plus and the ADSOM-Plus are below:
Chairman of ADMM-Plus:
H.E. Gen. Chansamone Chanyalath
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence
Lao PDR
Chairman of ADSOM-Plus:
BG Saichay Kommasith
Permanent Secretary of Defence
Ministry of National Defence
Lao PDR
ADMM-Plus contact point:
Col Feuangxay Milakong
Deputy Director General of Foreign Relations Department
Ministry of National Defence
Lao PDR
