Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, chairperson of the 11th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Defense Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM) and 4th ADMM-Plus, handed over on Tuesday the event’s chairmanship to Singapore.
“Your Excellency Minister Ng Eng Hen, I have the honor to hand over the chairmanship of the ADMM and ADMM Plus to Singapore. I am confident that we will be able to sustain and further enhance our defense cooperation under your leadership. We shall reciprocate the support you have extended to us, and we look forward to the 12th ADMM and 5th ADMM-Plus in Singapore next year,” Lorenzana said in front of ministers from 10 ASEAN member-states during the handover ceremony here.
Lorenzana thanked his fellow ministers for making the Philippines’ chairmanship memorable with several “first” activities held for the first time which included the convening of a special ADMM Meeting on Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism, which resulted in a ministerial meeting about this when Marawi broke out.
“Indeed, this year’s meetings have been productive and it would not have been possible without the cooperation of all my fellow defense ministers. It was a challenge to host such an event on such special occasion of ASEAN’s 50th anniversary given the pressing security concerns in the country, particularly in Marawi and duties as Secretary of National Defense,” Lorenzana said.
“With the support and full cooperation extended by my fellow ADMM-Plus ministers, we are able to mark ASEAN’s 50th anniversary with enhanced defense cooperations towards a peaceful and stable region under the theme, Partnering for Change and Engaging the World. I wish to express my appreciation for all your support for the Philippines, ASEAN chairmanship, particularly for the 11th ADMM and 4th ADMM-Plus,” he added.
He said cooperation and new guidelines have been enhanced with the more than 10 years of defense cooperation under ADMM as well as seven years of collaboration with the Plus countries through ADMM-Plus.
“With a decade of defense cooperation behind us, we deemed it timely to take stock all initiatives under the ADMM and came up with ways to streamline, rationalize and synergize these initiatives together and along with those under ADMM-Plus to ensure we do not duplicate our efforts. We have come up with parameters to determine how to streamline ADMM-Plus Experts, Working Groups under the ADMM-Plus,” Lorenzana said.
The ADMM is the highest defense consultative and cooperative mechanism in the ASEAN.
The ADMM was established in 2006. 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 10 ASEAN member states namely: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The ADMM-Plus dialogue partners include Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia and the United States. It was established in 2010. (PNA)
