Rajnath Singh to lead Indian delegation at ASEAN-Plus Defence Ministers’ Meeting in Philippines
New Delhi, Oct 26. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will lead the Indian delegation to the 13th ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) in Cebu, the Philippines, from October 28 to 29, where he is scheduled to address regional and international security challenges and hold bilateral talks with his counterparts from participating countries.
Singh will speak at the forum during a session on ‘Exchange of Views on Regional and International Security Issues’, according to a Ministry of Defence statement.
On the sidelines of the meeting, the Defence Minister is expected to hold bilateral discussions with his counterparts to review the progress of existing defence cooperation and explore avenues for strengthening strategic partnerships. The discussions are expected to provide an opportunity to deepen defence engagement and reinforce India’s security ties with countries across the Indo-Pacific region.
The ADMM-Plus brings together the 11 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and eight dialogue partners – India, the US, China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. The forum serves as a platform for dialogue and practical cooperation on regional security and defence issues.
The ADMM is ASEAN’s highest-level defence consultative and cooperative mechanism, while the expanded ADMM-Plus framework facilitates engagement between ASEAN members and its external partners on shared security concerns.
India became a dialogue partner of ASEAN in 1992, and the first ADMM-Plus meeting was held in Hanoi, Vietnam, on October 12, 2010. Since 2017, defence ministers from participating countries have met annually to strengthen cooperation and address evolving regional security challenges.
The Philippines is chairing the ADMM-Plus in 2026. Under the forum’s framework, India and Malaysia are jointly co-chairing the Experts’ Working Group on Counter-Terrorism for the 2024-2027 cycle, reflecting their cooperation in addressing a key transnational security threat.
India’s participation in the meeting is part of its broader engagement with Southeast Asia under the Act East policy. Through defence dialogues, joint exercises, capacity-building initiatives and institutional cooperation, New Delhi has sought to expand its strategic partnerships with ASEAN countries and contribute to peace, stability and security across the Indo-Pacific.
The Cebu meeting is expected to provide an important platform for participating countries to exchange assessments of the regional and international security environment, strengthen defence cooperation and explore practical responses to common challenges.
