Why in news?

• IN Ships Kolkata and Shakti carried out Group Sail with naval ships of Japan, Philippines and the United States of America in the South China Sea
• IN Ships also took part in Maritime Security (MS) Field Training Exercise (FTX) under the aegis of ADMM-PLUS.

ADMM-Plus:

• The ADMM-Plus is a platform for ASEAN and its eight Dialogue Partners to strengthen security and defence cooperation for peace, stability, and development in the
• The ADMM-Plus countries include ten ASEAN Member States, namely,
• Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Eight Plus countries – dialogue partners, namely Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, ROK, Russian Federation, and the United States.
• The ADMM-Plus has become an effective platform for practical cooperation among the participating countries’ defence establishments.

Objectives of ADMM-Plus:

• To benefit ASEAN member countries in building capacity to address shared security challenges, while cognisant of the differing capacities of various ASEAN countries;
• To promote mutual trust and confidence between defence establishments through greater dialogue and transparency; To enhance regional peace and stability  through cooperation in defence and security, in view of the transnational security challenges the region faces;
• To contribute to the realisation of an ASEAN Security Community which, as stipulated in the Bali Concord II, embodies ASEAN’s aspiration to achieve peace, stability, democracy and prosperity in the region where ASEAN member countries live at peace with one another and with the world at large;
• To facilitate the implementation of the Vientiane Action Programme, which calls for ASEAN to build a peaceful, secure and prosperous ASEAN, and to adopt greateroutward- looking external relation strategies with our friends and Dialogue