Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will pay two day visit to Indonesia to attend the 10th ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus). Indonesia is hosting the meeting as it is the chair of ADMM-Plus. Meeting is scheduled to take place on November 16 to 17, 2023.
During the meeting, Defence Minister will address the forum on regional and international security issues.
On the sidelines of the ADMM-Plus, Singh will hold bilateral meetings with the Defence Ministers of the participating countries and discuss defence cooperation matters to further strengthen mutually-beneficial engagements.
The ADMM is the highest defence consultative and cooperative mechanism in ASEAN. ADMM-Plus is a platform comprising 10-nation ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and its eight dialogue partners — India, China, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Russia and the United States.
India became the dialogue partner of the ASEAN in 1992 and the inaugural ADMM-Plus was convened in Hanoi, Vietnam on October 12, 2010. Since 2017, the ADMM-Plus Ministers have been meeting annually to bolster the cooperation amongst the ASEAN and the Plus countries.
The ADMM-Plus progresses practical cooperation amongst member countries through seven Experts Working Groups (EWGs) namely Maritime Security, Military Medicine, Cyber Security, Peacekeeping Operations, Counter Terrorism, Humanitarian Mine Action and Humanitarian Assistance & Disaster Relief (HADR).
During the 10th ADMM-Plus, the next set of co-chairs for the cycle 2024-2027 would also be announced. In the present cycle from 2021-2024, India is co-chairing EWG on HADR along with Indonesia.