ASEAN Defense Ministers Vote for First ADMM+ Hanoi in Oct

Defense ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) all agreed that the first ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting plus eight (ADMM+8) will be held in Hanoi in mid-October.

 

The ministers who gathered at the 4th ADMM Hanoi approved the ADMM+ process in a joint declaration issued May 11, the Vietnamese government said on its website Wednesday.

 

Besides China, India, Russia, the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, ASEAN will seek more other partners for the bloc’s new defense mechanism, Minister Teo Chee Hean told PM Nguyen Tan Dung in Hanoi on May 11.

 

Hean, on behalf of the ASEAN defense ministers, committed to join hands with Vietnam for the success of the first ADMM+.   

The ADMM+, initiated at the 1st defense ministerial meeting in Malaysia in 2006, will not be considered a military alliance, but to cope with non-traditional security challenges especially disaster relief, maritime security, Vietnamese Minister Phung Quang Thanh as the host of ADMM 4 said.

 

The ADMM 4 joint declaration also applauded the initiatives by Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia on ASEAN defense cooperation in humanitarian aids and disaster relief, the cooperation between ASEAN defense institutions and civil society organizations to cope with non-traditional challenges, and the ASEAN cooperation military industry, respectively. (www.chinhphu.vn, People’s Army), People’s Army)