ASEAN and the ADMM-Plus: Balancing between Strategic Imperatives and Functionality

ASEAN and the ADMM-Plus:Balancing between Strategic Imperatives and Functionality Siew Mun Tang (bio) The ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM) was established in 2006 to provide an institutionalized mechanism for the ASEAN defense establishments to strengthen trust and regional security cooperation.1 While the ADMM remains a platform for intraregional cooperation, the ADMM-Plus was inaugurated in 2010 to facilitate ASEAN’s engagement with extraregional security partners (the so-called Plus countries). The ADMM-Plus aims to “provide a platform for ASEAN and its eight Dialogue Partners to strengthen security and defense cooperation for peace, stability and development in the region.”2 Originally, the ADMM-Plus was conceptualized to hold meetings once every three years, but the ASEAN defense ministers decided at the 6th ADMM in Phnom Penh to reduce the interval to every two years. To date, the ADMM-Plus has met three times: in 2010, 2013, and 2015. This essay discusses the strategic utility of the ADMM-Plus for ASEAN. The first part provides a cursory review of the development of the grouping and its relationship with the ADMM and the Shangri-La Dialogue. This is followed by a discussion of how ASEAN views the ADMM-Plus and an analysis of ASEAN’s leadership and centrality within this multilateral framework. The essay concludes by outlining four challenges and issues for the ADMM-Plus to ponder in the immediate future. The Nexus between the ADMM and the ADMM-Plus The fact that the ADMM was established twelve years after the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) demonstrated ASEAN’s cautious approach toward establishing security regimes in the region. At the same time, it also underlined ASEAN’s increasing comfort in tackling [End Page 76] security-related issues. Attended and led by states’ foreign affairs officials, the ARF was, until then, the sole region-wide security forum. However, its unwieldy membership—which comprises 27 countries, ranging from Australia to Vietnam and including states not usually associated with Southeast Asian security such as Mongolia, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka—reinforces the ARF’s reputation as a “talk shop” and diminishes its functional utility for security cooperation. The ADMM added a new dimension to regional security by moving it from the diplomatic realm to one that is functional. For the first time since ASEAN’s inception in 1967, the military establishment was at the fore instead of playing a supporting role. This was also the first time that the relationship among the ten ASEAN defense establishments was formalized in a regional framework. Although the ADMM arose from the ASEAN Security Community, it will not evolve into a military pact. Some of its recent achievements, such as the peacekeeping centers network, direct communications link, and logistics support framework, indicate that the ADMM is satisfied with finding modalities for ASEAN militaries to build trust through an intensification of cross-national interactions and cooperation. The development of the ADMM-Plus mimics the approach taken by the ADMM to improve institutional efficiency by reducing the number of collaborators and focusing on building a practical and jointly acceptable platform for the militaries to engage each other in an open and sustained manner. The ADMM-Plus also distinguishes itself from the Shangri-La Dialogue in that it goes beyond the diplomacy of defense and places a premium on function over ceremony. The Shangri-La Dialogue is an important part of the regional architecture and stands out primarily for its bilateral discussions and consultations. In comparison, the ADMM-Plus’s scope is multilateral and regional. The two institutions perform complementary functions, but the net impact of the ADMM-Plus will be more measurable because of its singular geographic focus on Southeast Asia, whereas the Shangri-La Dialogue defines Asia in the broadest sense. Why Is the ADMM-Plus Important for ASEAN? The ADMM-Plus provides an institutionalized framework for ASEAN member states to diversify and broaden their scope for military cooperation. Military activities and cooperation involve information sharing and trust, which more often than not limits a state’s potential partners. [End Page 77] The ADMM-Plus also exposes ASEAN member states to the Plus countries’ military training and procedures—a process that over time enhances the standards of the ASEAN...