The 12th ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM) and the ADMM-Plus in Kuala Lumpur this year produced a mix of reaffirmations of regional security principles, practical cooperation initiatives, and a flurry of high-level bilateral agreements and understandings that together underscore Southeast Asia’s continuing centrality in the Indo-Pacific security architecture.
At the multilateral level, the ADMM/ADMM-Plus sequence focused on common challenges such as maritime stability, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR), counter-terrorism, and cooperative mechanisms to avoid miscalculation in the maritime domain, while emphasising inclusive, rules-based approaches to preserve ASEAN centrality.
The meetings also served as the platform where defence ministers and senior officials from ASEAN and the “Plus” partner countries (including India, the United States, China, Japan, Australia, Russia, South Korea, and New Zealand) exchanged assessments on rising regional tensions and explored practical mechanisms for crisis communications, exercises, and capacity building.
India used the ADMM-Plus platform to underscore two interlocking themes: first, that defence cooperation with ASEAN and its dialogue partners is a practical expression of India’s Act-East policy; and second, that India’s Indo-Pacific vision is rooted in openness, the rule of law, and respect for sovereignty.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told delegates that ADMM-Plus was integral to India’s Act-East outreach and called for stronger collaborative efforts in capacity building, maritime security, and HADR, while stressing that India’s stance was not directed against any single country but aimed at a rules-based regional order.
These remarks signalled India’s intention to deepen defence ties without overtly aligning against any party, reinforcing a posture that is principled and pragmatic.
RM promised that “India is ready to continue contributing constructively through dialogue, partnership & practical cooperation in the spirit of MAHASAGAR”.
Under this, India is the co-chair for the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) Experts Working Group (EWG) on Counter-Terrorism, along with Malaysia, for the 2024-2027 cycle.
In this role, India’s first meeting was hosted in New Delhi in March 2025, where delegates discussed developing a comprehensive strategy to counter terrorism and extremism.
The two co-chairs will organize a “Table-Top Exercise” in Malaysia in 2026 and a “Field Training Exercise” in India in 2027.
Earlier, India co-chaired three Expert Working Groups: on Humanitarian Mine Action with Vietnam from 2014 to 2017, on Military Medicine with Myanmar from 2017 to 2020, and on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief with Indonesia from 2020 to 2024.
Now ASEAN and India will hold their next Maritime exercise in 2026, designated as “ASEAN-India Year of Maritime Cooperation,” and ASEAN navies are invited to the International Fleet Review and MILAN exercises in February 2026.
The most consequential bilateral outcome on ADMM-Plus margins was the launch of a long-term India–U.S. defence partnership: Rajnath Singh and U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth signed a ten-year defence framework intended to provide policy direction across the full spectrum of India–U.S. military cooperation.
Indian official briefings and the Ministry of Defence described the pact as heralding “a new decade of partnership,” covering interoperability, training, logistics, research and technology collaboration, and potentially easing procurement pathways for defence platforms.
For Washington and New Delhi alike, the agreement represented a concrete step toward deepening strategic convergence even as the two countries negotiate other bilateral tensions, signalling that defence ties can proceed as a stabilising ballast in the broader bilateral relationship.
The meeting between Rajnath Singh and Pete Hegseth also included discussions on practical cooperation, including potential sales and collaboration on maritime surveillance platforms, as well as a shared desire to increase joint training and maritime exercises in the Indo-Pacific.
U.S. coverage of the summit noted Hegseth’s outreach to both China and India on crisis communication lines and maritime safety as part of a wider push to maintain channels of military dialogue amid geopolitical frictions in the region.
The language used by both leaders, emphasising partnership, interoperability, and a “free and open Indo-Pacific”, indicates that the new framework will be tested quickly through working groups and follow-on arrangements.
Beyond the headline-grabbing India–U.S. accord, Rajnath Singh held a series of bilateral meetings that together paint a picture of India intensifying defence engagement with several important regional partners.
He held talks with the defence ministers of New Zealand (Judith Collins), South Korea (Ahn Gyu-back), Vietnam (Gen. Phan Van Giang), Singapore (Chan Chun Sing), among others.
He met the host Defence Minister of Malaysia, Dato’ Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin, as well as Media reports and Rajnath Singh’s own social posts highlighted the practical tone of those engagements: invitations for ministerial visits, offers to expand training exchanges, and discussions on maritime security cooperation and capacity building.
With Vietnam, which shares India’s concerns about maritime freedom and has been deepening defence ties with New Delhi, the conversations covered defence industrial cooperation and navy-to-navy interaction.
With South Korea and New Zealand, the emphasis was on expanding joint training, logistics links, and cooperative engagements that can be delivered quickly through joint exercises and exchanges.
Prior to his visit to Kuala Lumpur, Rajnath Singh was in Australia to commemorate five years of the India-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP). Three key agreements were signed to enhance cooperation in Information sharing, Submarine search and rescue, establishment of Joint Staff Talks.
He co-chaired the maiden India-Australia Defence Industry Business Roundtable in Sydney to explore collaboration in defence technology, manufacturing, and innovation.
A clear result of ADMM-Plus this year was the incremental strengthening of institutionalised defence cooperation, not through a single transformative treaty but through a web of bilateral frameworks, working groups, and pledges to cooperate on HADR, maritime domain awareness, and people-to-people exchanges (training, education, and joint exercises).
ADMM-Plus remains, therefore, less an arena for hard security pacts and more a convening architecture that normalises defence diplomacy, reduces barriers to cooperation, and builds the interoperable norms and habits of cooperation that are necessary when crises occur.
That is precisely the value India sought to underscore by emphasising a rule-based order and committing to more embedded, practical defence ties with ASEAN partners.
The broader implication for the Indo-Pacific is that regional security is being shaped less by single-axis alliances and more by overlapping, complementary partnerships and functional cooperation.
India’s strategy, reflected in Rajnath Singh’s interventions and bilateral diplomacy in Kuala Lumpur, is to deepen defence engagement across a range of partners, preserving strategic autonomy while contributing to regional stability through concrete projects: capacity building, exercises, maritime surveillance, and defence industrial collaboration.
This calibrated approach helps Delhi reassure Southeast Asian partners of its long-term commitment and hedge against the uncertainties of great-power competition.
Finally, while ADMM-Plus did not provide a panacea for the region’s strategic tensions, it delivered practical outcomes: a stronger India–U.S. defence framework, expanded bilateral engagements between
India and key Indo-Pacific partners, and a reaffirmed commitment by ADMM and ADMM-Plus members to maintain channels for dialogue and mechanisms for cooperation.
For India, the Kuala Lumpur meetings underscored that defence diplomacy — steady, multifaceted and institutionally grounded — will remain a central instrument of its Act-East and Indo-Pacific policies as it navigates an increasingly complex security environment.
- Gurjit Singh is a former Ambassador to Germany, Indonesia, Ethiopia, ASEAN, and the African Union Chair, CII Task Force on Trilateral Cooperation in Africa, Professor, IIT Indore.
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