New Delhi, Jan 13 (PTI) India and Malaysia will co-chair a key meeting of experts working group (EWG) on counter-terrorism under ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM)-Plus framework to further strengthen India’s multilateral cooperation on counter-terrorism with the platform, officials said on Tuesday.
The meeting will be held in New Delhi from January 14-16.
ASEAN — Association of Southeast Asian Nations — is considered one of the most influential groupings in the region and its members include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand and Timor Leste.
The ADMM-Plus serves as a platform for practical cooperation among the participating countries’ defence establishments.
It currently focuses on seven areas of practical cooperation namely maritime security, counter-terrorism, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, peacekeeping operations, military medicine, humanitarian mine action and cyber security, the officials said.
The EWGs have been established to facilitate cooperation in these seven areas, they added.
“The meeting of 16th ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM)-Plus Experts Working Group (EWG) on Counter Terrorism (CT) and Final Planning Conference for Table Top Exercise is scheduled to be held in New Delhi from January 14 -16,” the defence ministry said in a statement.
This will be the third meeting for the ongoing cycle from 2024-2027.
“The Final Planning Conference for Table Top Exercise will be conducted on January 14. Malaysia will host table top exercise (TTX) during the next edition of EWG meeting in 2026. India will subsequently hold Field Training Exercise (FTX) in 2027,” the statement said.
Dialogue partners in ASEAN, including Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan, China, the US and Russia, along with representatives from ASEAN Secretariat will participate in the EWG on counter-terrorism, it said.
This will be the third meeting for the ongoing cycle from 2024-2027.
“The meeting will provide an important platform to review progress since the previous session, deliberate on the ongoing and planned activities under the three-year work plan to further strengthen India’s multilateral cooperation on counter-terrorism with the ADMM-Plus framework,” the ministry said.
“The task of the co-chairs is to lay down the objectives, policy guidelines and directions for the EWG for the three-year cycle at the commencement of the chairmanship, conduct of regular EWG meetings (minimum two in year) and an exercise of any (TTX/FTX/STAFFEX/COMMEX, etc.) for all member nations in the third year to test the progress made in practical cooperation during the three-year cycle,” it said. PTI KND KVK KVK
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