By Marina Abdullah Sitau
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Tuesday 5 February 2013 - The ASEAN Defence Senior Officials’ Meeting Working Group (ADSOM WG) commenced today at the Centrepoint Hotel, Gadong, Brunei Darussalam. The meeting was chaired by Haji Adi Ihram bin Dato Paduka Haji Mahmud, Acting Director of Defence Policy, Directorate of Defence Policy, Ministry of Defence.
The meeting is being attended by around 42 participants from the ASEAN Member States, namely Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, as well as representatives from the ASEAN Secretariat.
In the meeting today, the ADSOM WG has discussed and considered a number of new initiatives which will further contribute towards the progress and wider development of the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM).
The Meeting will continue tomorrow to discuss the necessary preparations for the ADSOM-Plus WG Meeting that will be held on 7 February 2013. The ADSOM-Plus WG Meeting will bring together the ten ASEAN Member States, along with the Dialogue Partners of Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Russia and USA. The meeting will also discuss on the preparations of the ADSOM and the ADSOM-Plus in April 2013. The ASEAN Secretariat is also expected to brief the ADSOM WG on the Guidelines for Hosting the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting, the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus and Related Activities.
The ADSOM WG meeting will end tomorrow, to be followed by the ADSOM-Plus WG on 7 February 2013. These two meetings are the start of a series of meetings towards the 7th ADMM and 2nd ADMM-Plus that will be held on 7 May 2013 and 29 August 2013 respectively.
The ADMM is the highest defence mechanism within ASEAN. The annual ADMM facilitates the ASEAN Defence Ministers to discuss and exchange views on current defence and security issues and challenges faced in the region. The ADMM aims to promote mutual trust and confidence through greater understanding of defence and security challenges as well as enhancement of transparency and openness.
The ADMM-Plus, is a wider mechanism to engage with ASEAN Dialogue Partners in cooperation on defence and security matters. The inaugural ADMM-Plus was convened in Ha Noi, Viet Nam, on 12 October 2010. Some of the most outstanding progress of the ADMM-Plus has included the establishment of the Experts’ Working Group (EWG) in five areas of practical cooperation, namely the EWG on Maritime Security, EWG on Counter-Terrorism, EWG on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief, EWG on Peacekeeping Operations and EWG on Military Medicine.
In a significant step towards realizing the practical cooperation among the ADMM-Plus countries, the first ever ADMM-Plus HADR/Military Medicine Exercise will be held in Brunei Darussalam from 16-20 June 2013. This exercise will be held back-to-back with the 2nd ASEAN Militaries HADR Exercise (AHX).