ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Disaster Management (AMMDM

The objectives of the ADMM-Plus, are: • To benefit ASEAN member-states in building capacity to address shared security challenges • To promote mutual trust and confidence between defense establishments through greater dialogue and transparency • To enhance regional peace and stability through cooperation in defense and security, in view of the transnational security challenges the region faces • To contribute to developing the ASC, which embodies ASEAN’s aspiration to achieve peace, stability, democracy, and prosperity in the region where ASEAN member-states live at peace with one another and with the world at large; and • To facilitate the implementation of the VAP.

The ADMM and ADMM-Plus mechanisms have allowed ASEAN to develop some defense sector cooperation via consultation and confidence-building. Of import to regional HADR, the ADMM and ADMMPlus frameworks helped establish the ASEAN Militaries Ready Group (AMRG), ASEAN Militaries’ Logistic Support Framework, and the ASEAN Centre for Military Medicine (ACMM). In addition, the SOP on Multinational Coordination Centre was adopted in 2017.

The ADMM-Plus tries to find venues for practical cooperation among participating countries’ defense establishments with a focus on seven areas: maritime security, countering terrorism, HADR, peacekeeping operations, military medicine, humanitarian mine action, and cyber security. Experts Working Groups (EWG) facilitate cooperation. The EWGs are each co-chaired by one ASEAN member-state and one “Plus” country. After the inaugural ADMM-Plus in 2010, EWGs began conducting exercises, including an ADMM-Plus HADR exercise,142 the first of which was hosted by Brunei in June 2013, the second in Thailand in September 2016,143 the third and fourth by Malaysia in 2018 and 2019. EWG annual meetings on HADR have continued, including via tele-conference during the pandemic years.144

ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Disaster Management (AMMDM)

The ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Disaster Management (AMMDM) is the ASEAN ministerial body in charge of promoting ASEAN cooperation in DM. The AMMDM is a ministerial level group that oversees the ACDM within the ASCC, and it facilitates dialogue between ministries that oversee DM programming and other ministerial level bodies.145

Although AMMDM had originally convened in early December 2004, it was only re-invigorated as a platform for political collaboration among ASEAN member-states after 2013 when the AADMER COP sought top level oversight over the process. Per the Terms of Reference for the AMMDM, the body is primarily tasked with promoting engagement and cooperation among DM stakeholders. However, its specific mandate and functions are: • Ensure effective implementation of relevant directives, agreements, and decisions deriving from ASEAN Summits, the relevant strategic objectives of the ASCC Blueprint, and other relevant action lines pertinent to advancement of DM cooperation in ASEAN • Recommend and adopt policies, measures, and strategies for regional cooperation in

DM • Provide guidance to the ACDM to formulate work programs, strategies, and priorities to strengthen regional cooperation in DM, and monitor and review implementation • Work with other ASEAN sectoral ministerial bodies and ASEAN-related mechanisms to ensure coordination and synergy of efforts in areas related to DM • Promote collaboration with external parties, including ASEAN Dialogue Partners, international organizations, and other relevant partners and stakeholders to advance regional cooperation in DM; and • Adopt ASEAN’s common positions on

DM issues in preparation for international meetings and conferences and promote

ASEAN’s leadership and shared vision in in relevant multilateral fora.