By Normasitirena Suhaini
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Wednesday 8 May 2013 – An ASEAN-China Defence Ministers’ Informal Meeting took place yesterday afternoon at the Indera Kayangan Ballroom, Empire Hotel and Country Club, Brunei Darussalam.
The meeting discussed ASEAN-China defence cooperation and exchange views on regional and international cooperation. His Excellency General Chang Wanquan, State Councilor and Minister of National Defence, People’s Republic of China is on a three day bilateral visit to Brunei Darussalam commencing from 6 May until 9 May 2013. This is also His Excellency General Chang’s first overseas trip since his appointment as the Minister of National Defence of the People’s Republic of China.
This is the 3rd ASEAN-China Defence Ministers’ Informal Meeting to be held. The first meeting was held in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2011 and the second meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in 2012.
ASEAN and China continues to enhance their close and strategic partnership on political and security cooperation through regular dialogue and consultations at all levels. This includes Summits, ministerial meetings, senior officials and experts meetings, as well as through broader ASEAN-initiated regional architecture such as ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), ASEAN Plus Three (APT), the East Asia Summit (EAS) and ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM Plus).
China was the first dialogue partner of ASEAN to accede to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) in October 2003 in Bali. China’s accession to the TAC has contributed to the stature of the TAC as the code of conduct for inter-state relations in the region. China was also the first Nuclear Weapon State (NWS) which expressed its intention to accede to the Protocol to the Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone (SEANWFZ).
On non-traditional security, ASEAN and China signed a Joint Declaration of ASEAN and China in the Field of Non-Traditional Security Issues in 2002 followed by the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Cooperation in the Field of Non-Traditional Security Issues in 2004. After the expiry of the MoU in 2009, a new MoU for the period of 2010-2014 was signed in 2009 in Siem Reap, Cambodia.