Rajnath in Laos to meet Chinese counterpart at ASEAN meet
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, on Wednesday, left for a three-day visit to Vientiane, Laos , to attend the 11th ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM Plus). He is expected to hold bilateral meetings, among others, with his Chinese and US counterparts.
The Defence Minister posted on X: “Today 20th November, I’m leaving for Vientiane to attend the 11th ADMM Plus in Lao PDR. Various regional and international security issues will be discussed during the meeting”.
“There would also be separate bilateral meetings with my counterparts from other participating nations. Looking forward to it”, he added.
Rajnath is expected to meet his Chinese counterpart Admiral Dong Jun, on Wednesday. Notably, Admiral Dong, who has been at the helm in his country’s defence ministry since December last year, is not a member of the Central Military Commission of China, that country’s highest body on military matters. Traditionally, Defence Ministers in China are from the CMC.
The meeting of Rajnath and Admiral Dong comes just two days after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi met on the sidelines of the G20 Leaders Summit at Rio De Janeiro, Brazil on Monday night.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had said about the meeting, “The two Ministers felt that it was imperative that the focus should be on stabilizing ties, managing differences and taking the next steps.”
Also, on Monday, the Ministry of Defence in a statement had put out the details of Rajnath’s visit to Laos.
It said: “On the sidelines of 11th ADMM-Plus meeting, the minister is expected to hold bilateral meetings with participating counterparts from Australia, China, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Republic of Korea and USA”. These meetings are aimed at further enhancing bilateral defence cooperation with these countries.
The minister would address the forum on Regional and International Security Issues during the meeting.
ADMM is the highest defence consultative and cooperative mechanism in ASEAN. ADMM-Plus is a platform for ASEAN member states --Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam --- and its eight Dialogue Partners -- India, US, China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand -- to strengthen security and defence cooperation.
India became the dialogue partner of ASEAN in 1992 and the inaugural ADMM-Plus was convened in Hanoi, Vietnam on October 2010. Since 2017, ADMM-Plus Ministers have been meeting annually to bolster the cooperation amongst ASEAN and the Plus countries. Laos is the chair and host of 11th ADMM-Plus.
