Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Our engagement with our ASEAN counterparts complements our other strong defence partnerships across the region. This government prioritises enhancing our participation in the ASEAN Defence Minister's Meeting Plus. The ADMM-Plus itself focuses on very practical cooperation in fields which include counterterrorism, maritime security, humanitarian assistance and peacekeeping. It's been particularly successful in holding important major multilateral exercises in these areas, including, for example, the maritime security and counterterrorism exercises held in Singapore and in Brunei just last year. We have helped build the region's collective capacity to combat terrorism as the co-chair, with Singapore, of the ADMM-Plus Experts' Working Group On Counter-Terrorism from 2014 to 2017, in which we promoted regional cooperation to combat the threat particularly posed by returning foreign fighters. We're now co-chair of the Experts' Working Group on Peacekeeping Operations with our close regional partner and friend Indonesia. (Time expired)