India Backs Bigger Role for ASEAN in Countering Regional Terrorism

The 9th ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Plus (ADMM Plus) meeting took place in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Wednesday. The ADMM Plus comprises Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea and the US, the eight dialogue partners of the ten-nation ASEAN bloc.

Describing transnational and cross-border terrorism as the “gravest threat” to world peace, Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday called upon regional countries to play a greater role in combating terrorist activities.

The Indian minister remarked that ADMM Plus grouping could not just position itself as a regional security forum, but also a “driver for world peace”.

At the same time, Singh noted that “indifference” to terrorist activities could no longer be a response, stating that terrorism has found victims globally: terrorist groups have managed to create “interlinkages” across continents with “new-age technologies” that help them transfer money and recruit freshmen.

Singh underlined that the trend of terrorists using emerging technologies was the primary theme of discussion at the Special Meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) hosted by India last month.

The UNSC CTC unanimously adopted the "Delhi Declaration” which calls for “countering the use of new and emerging technologies for terrorist purposes”.

‘ASEAN-Centric Indo-Pacific’ Becomes More Important Than Ever

Expressing concerns over “disruptive" global politics caused by tensions between western nations and Russia, as well as between Washington and Beijing over Taiwan, Singh noted that a “peaceful Indo-Pacific” with ASEAN at its “center” has become more important in the current geopolitical climate.

Much like the ‘ASEAN Outlook on Indo-Pacific’, New Delhi’s Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI) is premised on the concept of centrality of the ten South-East Asian nations in the emerging security architecture in the Indian and Pacific Ocean.

The Indian Defense Minister said that regional security initiatives should “reflect the larger consensus," amid reservations over US-led AUKUS alliance (also comprising Australia and the UK) in South-East Asian nations.

The ongoing negotiations on the ‘Code of Conduct’ of the South China Sea should be consistent with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and should not "prejudice" the rights of countries not party to these talks, Singh underlined.