CLARK, Pampanga — Defense ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) on Monday signed a joint declaration during the 11th ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM) here, reaffirming their common commitments and goals to promote defense cooperation and regional security.
“The joint declaration being signed embodies the collective sense of the ASEAN defense ministers on the regional security environment. More importantly, it contains the ministers’ shared thrust and specific undertakings to address the security challenges facing the region as well as the practical measures to promote cooperation,” they said in a statement read during the signing ceremony held at the ASEAN Convention Center here.
After the signing, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, as ADMM chair together with ASEAN Secretary General Le Loung Minh, presented the signed joint declaration.
Lorenzana likewise handed to the ASEAN Secretary General the books that contained the outcome documents of the ADMM, defense and security perspectives of the Philippine Secretary of National Defense, and the evolution of the security community building in the region.
Since 2006 when the first ADMM convened, the defense ministers have consistently issued a joint declaration.
Meanwhile, the event on Tuesday will be highlighted with the launch of the ASEAN direct communication infrastructure and the handover ceremony of the Philippines’ ADMM chairmanship to Singapore.
The ADMM is the highest defense consultative and cooperative mechanism in the ASEAN. It aims to promote mutual trust and confidence through greater understanding of defense and security challenges, as well as enhancement of transparency and openness among the 10 ASEAN member states.
On the other hand, the ADMM-Plus is a platform for ASEAN Defense Ministers to engage their counterparts from the Plus countries, namely: Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Russia and United States.
With the establishment of the ADMM-Plus in 2010, its Experts’ Working Groups (EWGs) on humanitarian assistance and disaster response maritime security, counter-terrorism, military medicine, peacekeeping operations, humanitarian mine action and cybersecurity were organized to promote practical cooperation that would enhance the ADMM-Plus members’ defense and military interoperability and capability. (PNA)
