Defense Minister Rajnath Singh will visit Indonesia, will attend ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting

Defense Minister Rajnath Singh will be on a two-day visit to Indonesia to attend a meeting of the 10-nation ASEAN grouping and some of its dialogue partners. It is expected that the emerging regional security scenarios will be discussed in this meeting.

Defense Minister Rajnath Singh is likely to present India's views on tackling key security challenges facing the region at the ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus). ADMM-Plus is a forum comprising the 10-nation ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and its eight dialogue partners, including India, China, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Russia, and the United States.

"Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will pay an official visit to Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia from November 16 to 17 to attend the 10th ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus)," the Defense Ministry said. "During the meeting on November 16, the Defense Minister will address the forum on regional and international security issues," a press release said.

This year Indonesia is hosting the meeting as the current Chair of ADMM-Plus. According to the ministry, on the sidelines of the ADMM-Plus meeting, Rajnath Singh will hold bilateral meetings with the defense ministers of the participating countries and discuss issues related to defense cooperation.

India became a Dialogue Partner of ASEAN in 1992 and the inaugural ADMS-Plus was held in Hanoi in October 2010. Since 2017, ADMM-Plus ministers have been meeting annually to strengthen regional security cooperation.

The full name of ASEAN is the Association of South East Asian Nations. It is a regional organization where different countries come together to address their economic and security issues. It is an intergovernmental organization of ten Southeast Asian countries. These 10 countries include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.