JOHOR BAHRU, MALAYSIA Saturday, 24 January 2015 – The ASEAN Defence Senior Officials’ Meeting Working Group Plus (ADSOM-Plus WG) was held at the Pulai Spring Resort, Johor Bahru, Malaysia today. Chairing the meeting was Dr. Jafri bin Abdul Jalil, Undersecretary, Policy and Strategic Planning Division, Ministry of Defence, Malaysia. The Head of Delegation from Brunei Darussalam was Haji Adi Ihram bin Dato Paduka Haji Mahmud, Acting Director of Defence Policy, Ministry of Defence as the Brunei Darussalam’s ADSOM-Plus WG Leader, and accompanied by research officers from the Directorate of Defence Policy.
The Meeting briefed on the progress and achievements of the ADMM-Plus platform, notably the six Experts’ Working Groups (EWGs) – EWG on Counter Terrorism, EWG on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief, EWG on Humanitarian Mine Action, EWG on Maritime Security, EWG on Military Medicine, and EWG on Peacekeeping Operations.
Brunei Darussalam and New Zealand, as the co-chair of the EWG on Maritime Security, reported on its development towards contributing and promoting practical maritime security cooperation, capacity building and enhancing interoperability among ADMM-Plus Member States.
Among others, Brunei Darussalam and New Zealand briefed the Meeting on the seminar on Counter Piracy Operations held in Auckland on 25th June 2014, which provided the opportunity for the participants to share experiences on counter piracy operations at national, bilateral and multilateral level, as well as discuss legal elements in counter piracy.
Brunei Darussalam and New Zealand also reported on the eighth ADMM-Plus EWG meeting on MS on 26th June 2014, back-to-back with the Counter Piracy Operations Seminar. Among others, the eighth meeting had successfully adopted the Concept Paper on the ADMM-Plus EWG on MS Passage Exercise (PASSEX) Programme, and further discussed on establishing online courses on the ADMM-Plus Maritime Security Community Information-Sharing Portal (AMSCIP).
The ADSOM-Plus WG was further informed of the Ninth ADMM-Plus EWG on Maritime Security held in Bandar Seri Begawan on 28th October 2014, held back-to-back with a Table Top Exercise (TTX) facilitated by representatives from Royal Brunei Navy and Royal New Zealand Navy. The TTX provided participants opportunities to review further on the current existing FTX SOP on Maritime Security. The ninth meeting also welcomed the concept and scenario of the Combined FTX between the ADMM-Plus Maritime Security and the ADMM-Plus Counter Terrorism planned in 2016.
Brunei Darussalam and New Zealand also shared future road maps of the ADMM-Plus EWG on MS, which include the Initial Planning Conference scheduled to be held in Brunei Darussalam on 2 – 6 February 2015; the Middle Planning Conference in Singapore to be held in September 2015; and the Final Planning Conference, also in Singapore, in February 2016.
The Meeting also discussed the preparations for the ADSOM-Plus, scheduled on 13 – 14 February 2015 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.