Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen Applauds ADMM for Charting Future Strategy; Cautions That Myanmar’s Actions May Undermine the ASEAN’s Centrality and ADMM’s Credibility

Minister for Defence Dr Ng attended the 18th ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting (ADMM) in Vientiane, Laos.

Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen attended the 18th ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM) in Vientiane, Laos, today. 

At the Meeting, the Ministers adopted the Vientiane Joint Declaration of the ADMM for ASEAN: Together for Peace, Security and Resilience, which reaffirms the ADMM’s commitment to strengthening defence cooperation and enhancing resilience amongst ASEAN Member States and Plus countries in the face of common and emerging security threats. 

The Ministers also approved other items, including the Strategy Paper on a Future-Ready ADMM and ADMM-Plus co-sponsored by Brunei and Singapore, which charts out the post-2025 strategy for the ADMM and ADMM-Plus, in support of the ASEAN Political Security Community Strategic Plan efforts under the ASEAN Community Vision 2045. The Strategy Paper addresses key issues such as the long-term trajectory of the ADMM-Plus, refreshing of the ADMM-Plus Experts’ Working Groups (EWGs) and enhancement of the ADMM-Plus EWGs Observership Programme, so that the ADMM and ADMM-Plus remains relevant and forward-looking.

On issues discussed at the Meeting which were at an impasse due to Myanmar’s sole objection, Dr Ng cautioned that “Myanmar’s behaviour risks undermining the ASEAN Centrality that we have painstakingly built over the past two decades [of defence cooperation]” and that “the ADMM will lose credibility”. Dr Ng noted that Myanmar’s behaviour is not in line with the ASEAN Leaders’ Review and Decision on the Implementation of the Five-Point Consensus issued in October 2024 which called for the crisis in Myanmar to not affect ASEAN decision-making. He urged Myanmar “not to use ASEAN for its own politics of retaliation [and] not to put the ADMM in a difficult position for its own purposes.” 

The ADMM agreed to continue discussions on the difficult issues in the coming year. Dr Ng urged the Ministers to “be united in working together for the interests of the ADMM to maintain its centrality”. 

Dr Ng will attend the 11th ADMM-Plus tomorrow. The ADMM will be joined by Defence Ministers and their representatives from the eight Plus countries, namely Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Russia, and the US.

ASEAN Defence Ministers and delegates at the 18th ADMM in Vientiane, Laos.