Sharing platform with his Chinese counterpart, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh Thursday said that maritime security, cyber-related crimes and terrorism and threats to the rules-based order are some of the main challenges that ASEAN as a forum has to address. Singh also asked for a collective and collaborative effort to fight against Covid 19.
Speaking at the meeting of the defence ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), called the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM+), Singh said that “our ability, to collectively respond to challenges in the region based on the fundamentals of freedom, inclusivity and openness will define our future.
“Threats to the rules-based order, maritime security, cyber-related crimes and terrorism, just to name a few, remain the challenges that we need to address as a forum,” Singh added.
The Defence Minister said that “amid the current regional environment with visible strains, we appreciate the central role of ASEAN-led forums, including ADMM Plus in promoting dialogue and engagement towards a pluralistic, cooperative security order in Asia”. He further said that the ADMM Plus, “has grown in the last decade to become the fulcrum of peace, stability and rules-based order in this region”.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh addresses during the 10th anniversary of the founding of the ASEAN Defence Minister Meeting Plus (ADMM Plus) at Hanoi in Vietnam, via video conference, in New Delhi, Thursday.
The joint statement on Advancing Partnership for Sustainable Security in 2019, which reflected the commitment of the ADMM Plus Defence Ministers to the maintenance of regional peace, stability and security.
