Rajnath Singh attends 10th ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus in Jakarta

Jakarta [Indonesia], November 16 (ANI): Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday arrived at the venue of the10th ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) in Indonesia’s capital city Jakarta.

During the meeting that is being held on the sidelines of the Defence Ministers of participating countries, Singh will address the forum on regional and international security issues, the Ministry of Defence announced in an earlier press release.

Singh was greeted by Indonesian Defence Minister and the Chair of ADMM Plus, Prabowo Subianto, who welcomed Rajnath Singh. The two leaders greeted each other warmly and proceeded to attend the meeting.

Taking to X, Rajnath Singh’s Office stated, “Raksha Mantri Shri @rajnathsingh will attend the 10th ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting at Jakarta. He was received by the Indonesian Defence Minister and the Chair of ADMM Plus, Mr. Prabowo Subianto.”

On Wednesday Singh had tweeted that he looked forward to holding discussions with his counterparts from other nations regarding major security challenges and opportunities that are present before the ASEAN region.

On the first day of the meeting, the Defence Minister will address the forum on regional and international security issues.

According to the release by the Defence Ministry, the ADMM is the highest defence consultative and cooperative mechanism in ASEAN.

Since 2017, the ADMM-Plus Ministers have been meeting annually to bolster cooperation amongst ASEAN and the Plus countries. Indonesia is hosting the meeting as it is the chair of ADMM-Plus.

In a post shared on X, Rajnath Singh had prior to his departure stated that he is looking forward to discuss major security challenges and opportunities presenting before the ASEAN region with his counterparts from other countries

During the 10th ADMM-Plus, the next set of co-chairs for the cycle 2024-2027 will also be announced. In the present cycle from 2021-2024, India is co-chairing the Experts Working Group on HADR along with Indonesia.

On the sidelines of the ADMM-Plus, Rajnath Singh will hold bilateral meetings with the Defence Ministers of the participating nations and discuss defence cooperation matters to further strengthen mutually-beneficial engagements.

The ADMM-Plus is a platform for the ASEAN member states -Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam- and its eight Dialogue Partners -India, US, China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand- to strengthen security and defence cooperation.

India became the dialogue partner of the ASEAN in 1992. Furthermore, the inaugural ADMM-Plus was convened in Vietnam’s Hanoi on October 12, 2010.

Since 2017, the ADMM-Plus Ministers meetings have been heldannually to bolster the cooperation amongst the ASEAN and the Plus countries.

According to a Defence Ministry release, “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).”