Delegations from 10 ASEAN members (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand) and eight dialogue partners (Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan, China, the US and Russia) will take part in the two-day ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) Experts Working Group (EWG) on Counter-Terrorism meeting on Wednesday and Thursday.
India and Malaysia will co-chair the meeting. Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh will deliver the keynote address during the opening ceremony on Wednesday.
The ADMM-Plus works as a platform for ensuring cooperation among the defence establishments of the participating countries.
It currently focuses on seven areas of practical cooperation: counter-terrorism, maritime security, humanitarian assistance and disaster management, peacekeeping operations, military medicine, humanitarian mine action and cyber security.
The meeting seeks to share the on-ground experience of the defence forces of ASEAN and its dialogue partners. It will lay the foundation for the activities, exercises, seminars and workshop planned for the next three years.
This year's meeting will focus on evolving a robust and comprehensive strategy designed to tackle the evolving threat of terrorism and extremism.
The co-chairs are responsible for laying down the objectives, policy guidelines and directions for the EWG for the three-year cycle at the beginning of the chairmanship, having regular EWG meetings and an exercise for all member nations in the third year to test the progress made in practical cooperation during the three-year cycle.
