30 April 2011

Brunei: ASEAN Defence Senior Officials' Meeting (ADSOM) and ASEAN Defence Senior Officials Meeting Plus (ADSOM Plus), Yogyakarta, Indonesia

INDONESIA, Wednesday 27 April 2011 - The ASEAN Defence Senior Officials’ Meeting (ADSOM) and the ASEAN Defence Senior Officials Meeting Plus (ADSOM Plus) were held back to back at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Yogyakarta, Indonesia from 27 to 29 April 2011.

The sessions were opened with the exchange of views on defence and security related issues focusing on areas of practical cooperations. Non-traditional security issues such as earthquake and tsunami affecting a few countries in the region have dominated the meeting that were relevant to the on-going initiatives under the ADSOM Plus.


The meeting discussed the ADMM-Three-Year-Work-Program 2011-2013 to ensure progress of the initiatives. The meeting also heard reports on progress relating to ASEAN defence establishments and security discussions on Civil Society Oganisation Cooperation on Non-Traditional Security and the Use of ASEAN Military Assets and Capacities in Humanitarian and Disaster Relief.

During the ADSOM, two new initiatives, the Establishment of ASEAN Peacekeeping Centres Network and the ASEAN Defence Industry Collaboration concept papers were discussed.

Progressing from the 1st ADMM Plus Meeting in Hanoi in 2010, the 2nd ADSOM Plus in Yogyakarta discussed five concept papers on areas of practical cooperations in maritime security, human assistance and disaster relief, peacekeeping operations, counter terrorism and military medicine.

The result of the ADSOM Meeting will be reported to the ASEAN Defence Ministerial Meeting (ADMM) to be held in Jakarta from 17 – 21 May 2011.

Brunei Darussalam Ministry of Defence’s delegation was led by Haji Awang Saifulbahri bin Haji Awang Mansor, Permanent Secretary (Defence Policy and Development), Ministry of Defence.

The delegation from Brunei Darussalam Ministry of Defence took the opportunity to conduct several bilateral meetings with regional counterparts particularly with Malaysia, Singapore and Cambodia . Discussions of these meetings reiterated commitment to further strengthen defence relations through dialogue/meeting, trainings, exercises and other collaborative efforts towards the development of the armed forces. The meetings further looked into ways of strengthening defence cooperation, exchanged views on regional and international defence and security matters.