Speeches
Speech by Mr Chan Chun Sing, Minister for Defence, at the 26th ASEAN Chiefs of Army Multilateral Meeting (ACAMM) – 13th ASEAN Sergeant Majors Annual Meeting (ASMAM) Joint Opening Ceremony on 26 November 2025
26 November 2025
A very good morning to all of you, the Chiefs of Army of the ASEAN countries and your delegations. A very warm welcome to all of you and your delegation to Singapore.
Today is a very important meeting, I would say, and a very meaningful one. For me, personally, I was in your position about 15 years ago, attending the ACAMM. ACAMM has always, in my memory, been a very useful meeting, because it’s a chance for us to get to know one another, it’s a chance for our staff to get to know one another, and through this we build the friendship, we plant the seeds for our younger generation to grow up together, to be able to work together, and overcome challenges together. I hope it is in the same spirit that you will also participate in this meeting with frank exchanges of the challenges facing us and opportunities that we can seize together.
Since my time at ACAMM 15 years ago, I think all of us would agree that the world has changed. Not only has the world changed, but the world continues to change at a very rapid pace. Many of the old assumptions that we are used to may no longer be relevant, but having said that, there are also some things that have not changed, and today I will focus my sharing on some of the things that have changed, the things that have not changed, and the things that we in ASEAN have to work on together.
Contemporary Security Challenges
I think it goes without saying that the world has become much more volatile, much more uncertain, much more complex and ambiguous – or what they call the 'VUCA world' that many of you are familiar with. Indeed, the long-standing international norms have been challenged. Over the past few years, we have seen many wars. It’s not just the wars that worry us, but it’s the lack of international norms, of guardrails that help to maintain international relations. With that, many countries are recalculating their own assumptions on who they can trust, who can they work with, and where might those new challenges be.
Another thing that has changed is that the threats have not come just from countries-to-countries relations. There are also new and emerging threats that transcend borders, that require us to think beyond the conventional perspectives. Things like terrorism, things like the new technologies that have disrupted warfare, things like the protection of critical infrastructure, where the lines between what is civilian targets and what are military targets have become increasingly blurred. These are the new challenges that we have to grapple with, individually and together as ASEAN.
Enduring Strategic Imperatives
However, there are also things that have not changed. First, I think for us in ASEAN, our security will require us to work together. I think that has not changed. Second, it will also require us to work with relevant stakeholders who have an interest in the security of this part of the world. This part of the world has remained critical to global trade. We all know how busy the Straits of Malacca, South China Sea and Karimata Strait are. These are the lifelines of global trade, and the security and stability of this part of the world is not just a concern for the countries in this part of the world, but it is also a shared concern for many other stakeholders beyond this part of the world. So, these are the things that have not changed and will require us to also seize the opportunities to work together to overcome these challenges.
ASEAN’s Strategic Response Framework
Having said that, what can ASEAN and what can ASEAN armies do together to overcome some of these challenges and to seize new opportunities? Today, I will use the ‘VUCA’ acronym and turn it around and say that there are four things that I think we need to do well.
First, vigilance. Compared to the rest of the world, we can still say that this part of the world is relatively peaceful, but as we say, low risk does not mean no risk. There are risks that we are confronted with that we still need to stay relevant to, and the worst mistake that we can make is to be complacent, to think that peace will continue to be around effortlessly – that should not be our assumption. The need to remain vigilant to the current challenges and emerging challenges must be the first priority of all ASEAN countries. As I mentioned before, there are new challenges that are emerging from counter-terrorism to the protection of critical infrastructure, to the issues of cybersecurity. These are all new challenges that we need to stay vigilant to.
Second, I would say, unity or cohesion. Each of us in ASEAN are relatively small or smaller countries in the larger scheme of things or on the global stage. If each of us go our own way, our voices will be diminished. On the other hand, if each of us can work together as one ASEAN, then our voices, our perspectives, will be amplified on the world stage. It is important for us to keep reminding ourselves that we are all stronger as one. This is not easy. In order for us to achieve cohesion in ASEAN, each of us individually must be confident and coherent domestically. Any country who is not confident or cohesive domestically will not have the conditions to be able to play the role of a cohesive player in ASEAN. So while we say that it is important, we also know that it is challenging.
The third thing, the “C” will stand for consistency in principles and capabilities. If ASEAN wants our voice to be heard and be taken seriously, then we will have to stand on the side of principles. We will have to be consistent in the way we approach international issues for others to want to take us seriously. But if others come to the conclusion that ASEAN countries are not principled, or can be swayed by other forces beyond our country to choose sides, then I think our roles and our voices will also be diminished. We need to be consistent across time, rather than to be expedient at any point short term in time. That requires courage from the leadership of all of us, the courage to stay the course, to choose the side of principles, rather than to choose sides. I’ve always said this, that for us to choose sides, we will become irrelevant, and if we are irrelevant, then we certainly have to choose sides. Having said that, we need to be consistent. It is necessary, but not sufficient.
We also need real capabilities for others to take us seriously and want to partner us, and this is why conferences like this are important. This is a forum whereby we build trust, we build confidence with one another, and together, we build capabilities to overcome our challenges together. Such capabilities can include Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief, as you are discussing. It can also be capabilities in the conventional sense. It can be capabilities in the new domains, in the new challenges that I’ve just mentioned.
Last but not least, “A”. In a fluid world, we will need to be adept and adroit in the way we come together as one to interact with external stakeholders. This might sound cliché, that we need to be agile and adroit in how we work with others, but the starting point in this agility must come from our ability to deeply understand the needs, the fears, the concerns and aspirations of the partners that we are working with.
Whether it is big powers, medium powers, powers that are external to this region or near this region, we all need to spend time to deeply understand their fears, concerns and aspirations. Only so can we build up the trust and come up with ideas that value add to the relationship for others to take ASEAN seriously. Each and every one of us – and together as a team – we will need to spend time to engage external stakeholders, to understand their fears, concerns and aspirations for this region, then we can come up with ideas on how we can manage our relationships with these external stakeholders to play a constructive role in the peace and security of this region.
Conclusion
So yes, the VUCA world – the volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous world – has become even more volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. But at the same time, we can respond with our own VUCA, which is to stay vigilant, to stay united and cohesive in our actions, to be consistent in applying our principles, build real capabilities, and finally, to spend time to adequately understand and build relationship with all relevant stakeholders so that we can manage all these relationships with agility and adroitness.
On that note, I wish you all the very best in your conference, and I hope that in your stay in Singapore, it will be an opportunity for all of us to get to know one another better, to discuss the challenges that we are facing, but also never forgetting that there are opportunities that we can work together to bring our relationships and our capabilities to the next higher plane.
Thank you very much, and I wish you success in your future endeavours. Thank you.
More Resources