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DPM Teo Attends Defence and Security Forum in Malaysia
14 October 2010
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Teo Chee Hean is in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to attend the inaugural Putrajaya Forum. This forum is organised by the Malaysian Institute of Defence and Security (MIDAS) and brings together Defence Ministers, officials and academics from the region to discuss defence and security issues. The forum, which will be held from 13 to 15 Oct 2010, is themed "Emerging Regional Security Architecture".
During the forum, Mr Teo participated in a panel discussion at the opening dinner, alongside Brunei's Deputy Minister of Defence Dato Paduka Haji Mustappa bin Haji Sirat, Malaysia's Minister of Defence Dato' Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid bin Hamidi and the Philippines' Secretary of National Defense Voltaire Gazmin. As part of the panel discussion, Mr Teo shared his views of the inaugural ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting (ADMM)-Plus in Hanoi, Vietnam, where he had just arrived from: "We have now established the ADMM-Plus which is a key component of the regional security architecture. It will lay the foundation for mutual understanding, trust and cooperation in our region."
Noting that the ASEAN Defence Ministers had only met together for the first time in 2006, Mr Teo said that "it had been a great achievement for ASEAN to establish the ADMM-Plus" in four years. The fact that all the "Plus" countries had been represented by their Defence Ministers, except for Russia who was represented by its First Deputy Defence Minister, was a testament to the importance that the "Plus" countries paid to the ADMM-Plus framework. Indeed, Mr Teo noted that US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chinese Defence Minister GEN Liang Guanglie had met each other for the first time at the ADMM-Plus."
Mr Teo added that the ADMM-Plus meeting had affirmed the central role of ASEAN in the regional security architecture, given ASEAN's open and consultative approach to building trust and confidence among the ADMM-Plus member states. "We (the ADMM-Plus member states) were able to look beyond differences over specific issues and focus on our common objective of enhancing peace and stability in the region. So we were able to build a community of cooperation based on a confluence of shared interests."
In addition, Mr Teo noted that the ADMM-Plus would also move beyond dialogue to include practical co-operation in five Experts' Working Groups - counter-terrorism, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, maritime security, military medicine, and peacekeeping operations.
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