Meeting of 16th ADMM-Plus EWG on Counter Terrorism & Final Planning Conference for Table Top Exercise to be held in New Delhi

The meeting of 16^th ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting (ADMM)-Plus Experts Working Group (EWG) on Counter Terrorism (CT) and Final Planning Conference for Table Top Exercise is scheduled to be held in New Delhi from January 14 to 16, 2026. India and Malaysia will co-chair the 16^th EWG on CT meeting. Delegations from 11 ASEAN members (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand and Timor Leste) and 07 dialogue partners (Australia, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Japan, China, USA and Russia) along with ASEAN Secretariat representatives will participate in the EWG on CT. This will be the third meeting for the ongoing cycle from 2024-2027.

The meeting will provide an important platform to review progress since the previous session, deliberate on the ongoing and planned activities under the three-year work plan to further strengthen India's multilateral cooperation on Counter-Terrorism with the ADMM-Plus framework.

The Final Planning Conference for Table Top Exercise will be conducted on 14 January. Malaysia will host Table Top Exercise during the next edition of EWG meeting in 2026. India will subsequently hold Field Training Exercise in 2027.

The ADMM-Plus serves as a platform for practical cooperation among the participating countries' defence establishments. It currently focuses on seven areas of practical cooperation namely maritime security, counter-terrorism, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, peacekeeping operations, military medicine, humanitarian mine action and cyber security. The EWGs have been established to facilitate cooperation in these seven areas.

The task of the co-chairs is to lay down the objectives, policy guidelines and directions for the EWG for the three-year cycle at the commencement of the chairmanship, conduct of regular EWG meetings (minimum two in year) and an exercise of any (TTX/FTX/STAFFEX/COMMEX etc.) for all member nations in the third year to test the progress made in practical cooperation during the three-year cycle.

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SR/Savvy