Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will pay an official visit to Jakarta on November 16 and 17 to attend the 10th Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) and will address the forum on regional and international security issues, the Ministry said on Tuesday. Indonesia is hosting the meeting as the chair of ADMM-Plus. The meeting comes at a time of escalated fighting in Myanmar between the Army and insurgent groups, with Myanmar refugees coming into Mizoram in India.
On the sidelines of the ADMM-Plus, Mr. Singh will hold bilateral meetings with the Defence Ministers of the participating countries and discuss defence cooperation matters to further strengthen mutually-beneficial engagements, the Ministry said in a statement.
The ADMM is the highest defence consultative and cooperative mechanism in ASEAN. The ADMM-Plus is a platform for the ASEAN member-states — Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam — and its eight dialogue partners — India, U.S., China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand — to strengthen security and defence cooperation.