Rajnath to attend Defence Ministers’ meet in Jakarta
Context
According to the Ministry of Defence, Rajnath Singh will pay an official visit to Jakarta on Thursday and Friday to attend the 10th Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) and address the forum on regional and international security issues.
What is ASEAN Grouping?
- ASEAN, or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a Southeast Asian regional organization with 10 member countries. The ASEAN Declaration was signed on August 8, 1967, by the foreign ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.
- ASEAN has evolved and expanded its ambitions beyond its basic goal of limiting communism to become a significant regional political and economic union.
What is the ADMM-Plus?
- ASEAN and its eight Dialogue Partners (Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Russia, and the United States) established ADMM-Plus as a platform.
- On October 12, 2010, the inaugural summit was held in Ha Noi, Vietnam.
- Since 2017, ADMM-Plus has met annually for enhanced dialogue and cooperation.
- A response to an increasingly challenging regional security environment.
What are the objectives of the ADMM-Plus?
- Building Capacity: Benefit ASEAN Member States in developing capacity to meet common security concerns, taking into account varied capacities.
- Transparency and trust: Increase mutual trust and confidence among defence establishments by increasing dialogue and transparency.
- Stability and peace: Improve regional peace and stability by addressing transnational security concerns through defence and security cooperation.
- ASEAN Security Cooperation: Contribute to the establishment of an ASEAN Security Community per the Bali Declaration II, fostering peace, stability, democracy, and prosperity.
- Vientiane Action Plan: Facilitate the implementation of the Vientiane Action Programme, which aims for an ASEAN that is peaceful, secure, and prosperous.
What is the recent development regarding the ADMM Plus?
- As the head of ADMM-Plus, Indonesia is holding the 10th ADMM-Plus meeting.
- Regional Context: The meeting is taking place as conflicts in Myanmar escalate, with refugees fleeing to Mizoram in India.
- Bilateral discussions: Minister Singh will hold bilateral discussions with participating countries’ defence ministers to discuss defence cooperation issues.
- ADMM and ADMM-Plus: ADMM is ASEAN’s top defence consultative and cooperative mechanism, while ADMM-Plus serves as a platform for ASEAN member nations and dialogue partners to deepen security and defence cooperation.
- Annual Meetings: ADMM-Plus Ministers have been meeting annually since 2017 to strengthen collaboration between ASEAN and the Plus countries.
