Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will lead the Indian delegation to the 13th ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting-Plus in Cebu, Philippines, starting on 28 October 2026. He will address the forum on 28 October on regional and international security issues. The ADMM-Plus meeting runs for two days, to 29 October, and it brings together defence ministers from ASEAN member states and eight dialogue partners. Rajnath Singh left New Delhi on 27 October for Cebu, and he arrived in Cebu on Tuesday night ahead of the meeting.
The forum is the highest defence consultative and cooperative mechanism within ASEAN. The ADMM brings together ASEAN member states, and the wider forum adds eight dialogue partners to the table. The dialogue partners are India, the United States, China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. The ASEAN member states are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam. The format gives defence ministers a regular platform to exchange views on security challenges and to build defence cooperation across the Indo-Pacific.
India became a dialogue partner of ASEAN in 1992, and the inaugural ADMM-Plus meeting was held in Hanoi, Vietnam, on 12 October 2010. Since 2017, defence ministers in the forum have met every year to strengthen defence cooperation between ASEAN member states and the eight partner countries. The Philippines is chairing the forum in 2026, and Cebu was chosen as the venue for the 13th meeting. India is co-chairing the Experts Working Group on Counter-Terrorism with Malaysia for the 2024 to 2027 cycle, a role that runs alongside its participation in the ministerial meeting.
ADMM-Plus address on regional security issues
Rajnath Singh will address the forum on exchange of views on regional and international security issues. The address is the main plenary intervention by India at the ADMM-Plus meeting, and it sets out the Indian position on security challenges facing the region. Regional security issues in the forum context cover maritime security, counter-terrorism, disaster response and other areas where defence forces work together. The address also gives India a chance to raise its priorities with all member states and dialogue partners present in one room.
Before leaving New Delhi, Rajnath Singh said India remained committed to strengthening regional security cooperation, promoting ASEAN centrality and ensuring peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region under its Act East Policy. ASEAN centrality means keeping ASEAN at the centre of regional security arrangements, rather than letting arrangements be set by larger powers alone. The Act East Policy is the Indian policy of deepening strategic, economic and security ties with Southeast Asian nations. The ADMM-Plus meeting is one of the main forums where that policy is put into practice at ministerial level.
ADMM-Plus bilateral meetings on the sidelines
On the sidelines of the ADMM-Plus meeting, Rajnath Singh will hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts from participating countries. Bilateral meetings at a multilateral forum allow ministers to discuss defence ties with individual countries in more detail than a plenary session allows. Singh said the meetings would be a chance to review ongoing defence ties and explore new avenues to strengthen strategic partnerships. The counterparts for bilateral meetings include ministers from the United States, Japan, Australia and other participating nations.
India co-chairing the Experts Working Group on Counter-Terrorism with Malaysia for the 2024 to 2027 cycle is part of that wider engagement. Experts working groups in the ADMM-Plus system bring together officials and officers to work on practical cooperation in specific areas. Counter-terrorism work covers information sharing, capacity building and joint exercises, and the co-chair role gives India a direct part in shaping that work. The ministerial meeting in Cebu provides a platform to review progress in the working groups and to set priorities for the next cycle.
ADMM-Plus and Indo-Pacific defence cooperation
Rajnath Singh will lead the Indian delegation at the 13th ADMM-Plus meeting in Cebu on 28 and 29 October, address the forum on 28 October, and hold bilateral meetings with counterparts from participating nations. The forum will discuss regional and international security issues, and it will provide a platform to address regional security challenges and deepen multinational defence cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. The meeting ends on 29 October, after two days of deliberations in Cebu.