Sitharaman to attend ASEAN Defence Ministers meeting in Singapore tomorrow

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will attend two key meetings of the defence ministers of the ASEAN grouping to be held here from Friday.

Singapore will host the 12th ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting (ADMM) and the 5th ADMM-Plus to be held on Oct 19th and 20th.

The ADMM and ADMM-Plus serves as key Ministerial-level platforms in the regional security architecture, promoting strategic dialogue and practical cooperation between ASEAN and its partners.

The conference will also be attended by defence ministers from Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia and the US.

Singapore's Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen welcomed many of the defence ministers on Thursday as they arrived in Singapore ahead of the meetings.

The 12th ADMM and 5th ADMM-Plus are the pinnacle meetings of Singapore's 2018 ADMM and ADMM-Plus chairmanship.

This is the second time that Singapore is chairing the ADMM since its establishment in 2006 and the first time to chair the ADMM-Plus since its establishment in 2010.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a regional intergovernmental organisation comprising 10 Southeast Asian countries, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, military, educational, and sociocultural integration.

Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, Brunei and Laos comprise the 10-member ASEAN.

India is a full dialogue partner of the ASEAN.