The fifth ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting (ADMM-5), opened in Jakarta, Indonesia on May 19.
Themed “Strengthening Defence Cooperation of ASEAN and the GlobalCommunity to Face New Challenges”, the two-day meeting attracted theparticipation of 10 ASEAN Defence Ministers. The Vietnamese delegationwas led by Party politburo member and Defence Minister Phung QuangThanh.
Addressing the opening ceremony, Indonesian Defence MinisterPurnomo Yusgiantoro affirmed the significance of the meeting, whichaims to increase peace and stability in the region.
Defencecooperation among ASEAN members plays an important role in dealing withregional security conflicts, advancing towards the target of building anASEAN Community by 2015 with one of the three key pillars beingPolitical-Security Community, he said.
Strong political andsecurity relations among ASEAN members would help the blocplay a greater role in coping with global challenges, said MinisterYusgiantoro.
According to Minister Yusgiantoro, the world is facingchallenges such as piracy, terrorism, human trafficking, maritimesecurity, climate change, food security, energy security and naturalresource decline.
These challenges will cause negative impacts onnational defence in the future, and as a result increasing defencecooperation among ASEAN members is a must to build an ASEAN Community,Minister Yusgiantoro said.
On May 18, Indonesian Vice President Boediono received the Vietnamese Defence Minister on the sidelines of the ADMM-5.
At the meeting, Boediono spoke highly of Indonesia-Vietnam relations,saying he hoped that the relations would boost the process of buildingan ASEAN Community and increase member states’ capacity to deal withbilateral and multilateral issues, including defence and securityissues.
The same day, the Cambodian and Thai Defence Ministers metand discussed possible solutions to the border dispute between the twocountries./.