Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will travel to Kuala Lumpur later this week to attend the 12th ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus), scheduled for November 1. He is expected to address the forum on ‘Reflection on 15 Years of ADMM-Plus and Charting the Way Forward’, outlining India’s approach to regional security and cooperation in the Indo-Pacific.
Ahead of the main event, Singh will join the second ASEAN-India Defence Ministers’ Informal Meeting on October 31, chaired by Malaysia. Defence ministers from all ASEAN member states are expected to attend the session, which seeks to deepen defence ties between India and Southeast Asian countries under the Act East Policy.
During his two-day visit, the Defence Minister is also likely to hold bilateral discussions with his counterparts from ADMM-Plus countries and meet senior Malaysian leaders to explore ways of strengthening strategic and defence cooperation.
The ADMM-Plus serves as a key platform for dialogue and collaboration among ASEAN’s 11 member countries—Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam—and its eight dialogue partners, including India, the US, China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
India became a dialogue partner of ASEAN in 1992, and the first ADMM-Plus was held in Hanoi, Vietnam, in 2010. Since 2017, the meeting has been held annually to promote cooperation in defence and security.
Under the current cycle, India and Malaysia are co-chairing the Experts’ Working Group on Counter-Terrorism for 2024–2027. The second edition of the ASEAN-India Maritime Exercise is also planned for 2026, aimed at enhancing coordination in maritime security and disaster response.