India, Malaysia to Co-Chair 16th ADMM-Plus Counter-Terrorism Meeting

The 16th ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM)-Plus Experts’ Working Group (EWG) Counter-Terrorism (CT) meeting and Table Top Exercise, co-chaired by India and Malaysia, will be held in New Delhi from 14 to 16 January, 2026.

• The final planning conference for the 16th ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM)-Plus Experts’ Working Group (EWG) Counter-Terrorism (CT) meeting and Table Top Exercise will be held in New Delhi from 14 to 16 January, 2026. India and Malaysia will co-chair the 16th EWG meeting on CT.
• Representatives of 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) will participate in the EWG on CT along with representatives of the ASEAN Secretariat.
• This will be the third meeting for the ongoing cycle of the year 2024-2027. The final planning conference for the Table Top Exercise will be held on 14 January.
• Malaysia will host the Table Top Exercise during the next edition of the EWG meeting in 2026. India will thereafter conduct the Field Training Exercise in the year 2027.

ADMM-Plus Experts’ Working Group (EWG)

• The first ADMM-Plus meeting in 2010 in Hanoi, Vietnam launched this platform. Recognizing the security environment, ADMM-Plus started annual meetings from 2017.
• Focus areas (7 pillars): Maritime security, counter-terrorism, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR), peacekeeping operations, military medicine, humanitarian mine action and cyber security.
• Co-chair system: Each EWG is co-chaired by one ASEAN nation and one Plus country for a three-year cycle, which set objectives and organize activities.

India’s participation and history

• Dialogue Partner: India became a Dialogue Partner of ASEAN in 1992.
• Active participation: India co-chairs various EWGs, which reflects commitment towards regional security, especially counter-terrorism (for example, co-chairing of the 2024-2027 cycle) and military medicine (for example, 2017-2019 cycle).
• 2018: Indian Army hosted the 10th EWG meeting on military medicine in Lucknow. 2025: India co-chaired the 14th ADMM-Plus counter-terrorism meeting.