ADMM Background
The ASEAN Security Community (ASC) Plan of Action, adopted at the 10th ASEAN Summit, held in Vientiane on 29 November 2004, stipulates that ASEAN shall work towards the convening of an annual ADMM. Against this background, the Inaugural meeting of the ADMM was held in Kuala Lumpur on 9 May 2006. The ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting (ADMM) is the highest defence consultative and cooperative mechanism in ASEAN. 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 objectives of the ADMM, as outlined in the Concept Paper for the Establishment of an ADMM endorsed at the Inaugural ADMM in Kuala Lumpur on 9 May 2006, are as follows:
To promote regional peace and stability through dialogue and cooperation in defence and security;
To give guidance to existing senior defence and military officials dialogue and cooperation in the field of defence and security within ASEAN and between ASEAN and dialogue partners;
To promote mutual trust and confidence through greater understanding of defence and security challenges as well as enhancement of transparency and openness; and
To contribute to the establishment of an ASEAN Security Community (ASC) as stipulated in the Bali Concord II and to promote the implementation of the Vientiane Action Programme (VAP) on ASC.
To benefit ASEAN member countries in building capacity to address shared security challenges, while cognisant of the differing capacities of various ASEAN countries;
To promote mutual trust and confidence between defence establishments through greater dialogue and transparency;
To enhance regional peace and stability through cooperation in defence and security, in view of the transnational security challenges the region faces;
To contribute to the realisation of an ASEAN Security Community which, as stipulated in the Bali Concord II, embodies ASEAN’s aspiration to achieve peace, stability, democracy and prosperity in the region where ASEAN member countries live at peace with one another and with the world at large;
To facilitate the implementation of the Vientiane Action Programme, which calls for ASEAN to build a peaceful,secure and prosperous ASEAN, and to adopt greater outward-looking external relation strategies with our friends and Dialogue Partners.
Cooperation in the ASEAN defence sector has grown steadily since its inception in 2006. In particular, cooperation in the issue of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) has been progressing significantly in the ADMM. The ASEAN Defence Ministers have adopted concept papers to advance the cooperation in this area and conducted series of activities including Workshops on the ASEAN Defence Establishments and CSOs Cooperation in Non-Traditional Security and a Table-Top Exercise on HADR.
In the effort to strengthen regional defence and security cooperation, the 5th ADMM adopted the Concept Paper on the Establishment of ASEAN Defence Industry Collaboration (ADIC) and the Concept Paper on the Establishment of ASEAN Peacekeeping Centres Network. The implementation of these Concept Papers is underway.
In the efforts to further strengthen regional defence cooperation, the 7th ADMM endorsed new initiatives on Establishing ASEAN Defence Interaction Programme and Establishment of Logistics Support Framework.
The 8th ADMM will be convened in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, in May 2014.
For more information on the ADMM, please visit https://admm.asean.org