Minister of Defence Ron Mark attended a successful Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Defence Ministers’ Meeting – Plus (ADMM-Plus), which was held on 19 and 20 October in Singapore.
The meeting was an opportunity for Defence Ministers from across the Asia-Pacific region to discuss security issues and defence cooperation.
Whilst there he held formal bilateral meetings with a number of counterparts, including the Defence Ministers of China, Republic of Korea, Australia, Thailand, the Philippines, Brunei and Singapore.
“ADMM-Plus is the cornerstone of New Zealand’s South East Asia defence engagement and remains New Zealand’s principal forum for multilateral defence engagement in Asia. Our commitment to the ADMM-Plus was reaffirmed in the Strategic Defence Policy Statement earlier this year,” says Ron Mark.
“The organisation plays an important role in promoting understanding, building habits of dialogue, and facilitating practical defence cooperation across the region.
“A key outcome from our discussions was the issuing of a Joint Statements, on preventing and countering the threat of terrorism, and on practical confidence-building measures.
“ADMM-Plus Defence Ministers were united in their condemnation of terrorism in all its forms, and agreed to strengthen regional counter-terrorism cooperation. This will include cooperation through capacity-building initiatives and the sharing of information, intelligence, best practice and lessons learnt.
“Defence Ministers gave in principle support for ASEANs adoption of the world’s first Multilateral Guidelines for Air Military Encounters. These guidelines will be an important step toward enhancing aviation safety, particularly in light of increased congestion in the air,” says Ron Mark
New Zealand has been an ASEAN dialogue partner for over forty years, and a contributor to the ADMM-Plus framework since its inception.
The ADMM-Plus comprises Defence Ministers from ASEAN and the eight ‘Plus’ countries: Australia, China, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, Russia, New Zealand and the United Sates.
Under the ADMM-Plus framework there are seven Experts’ Working Groups which facilitate practical defence cooperation. New Zealand is pleased to currently co-chair the Experts’ Working Group on Cyber Security with the Philippines.
The joint statements can be found here: https://www.mindef.gov.sg/web/portal/mindef/news-and-events/latest-releases/article-detail/2018/october/20oct18_fs2
