Rajnath Singh Addresses 13th ADMM-Plus Meeting in Cebu

Rajnath Singh, the Raksha Mantri, spoke at the 13th ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) held at Cebu in the Philippines. He told the gathering that India stands with the region on collective security and on wiping out terrorism in every form, and that the country’s counter-terrorism skill has been earned in the field rather than in a classroom, over decades of facing cross-border threats.

Theme of the meeting

The theme chosen for this edition was ‘Navigating Our Future, Together’. The Defence Minister linked it to the Sanskrit idea of ‘Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah’, may all beings be happy, and said unity and the shared use of the region’s geographic, economic and strategic variety are its real strength. He placed India’s faith in an order resting on mutual trust, cooperation and shared responsibility.

Counter-terrorism and Operation Sindoor

He said Operation Sindoor showed up India’s forward-leaning, field-tested doctrine: terror infrastructure was pulled down and a red line was drawn against state-sponsored terrorism that would not be bargained over. India, he said, is willing to pass on that practical experience to ADMM-Plus partners through joint drills, capacity-building courses and sturdy intelligence exchange. India and Malaysia are the co-chairs of the grouping’s Experts’ Working Group on Counter-Terrorism for the cycle running from 2024 to 2027.

Maritime cooperation in 2026

India has named 2026 the ASEAN-India Year of Maritime Cooperation, and the second ASEAN-India Maritime Exercise was held during it. The Minister pointed out that the Indian Navy has kept an unbroken watch in tense waters such as the Gulf of Aden since 2008, escorting thousands of merchant ships and foiling dozens of hijack attempts at sea, whatever flag a ship flew. India, he said, will go on acting as a dependable net security provider in the Indian Ocean Region and the wider Indo-Pacific. Its insistence on the rule of law, and in particular on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and on the freedom of navigation and overflight, is aimed at no single country but at protecting what every regional stakeholder relying on open sea lanes needs.

A defence ‘Youth Bridge’

Mr Singh proposed a dedicated defence ‘Youth Bridge’ to widen institutional people-to-people contact, encourage digital innovation and support capacity building in step with ADMM-Plus programmes, calling it a fit with the ‘Youth, Peace and Security’ theme. He also recalled the second ASEAN-India Defence Ministers’ Informal Meeting at Kuala Lumpur in October last year, which backed the defence side of the ASEAN-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and the ASEAN-India Plan of Action for 2026 to 2030.