VietNamNet Bridge – The ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM+) opened this morning in Hanoi, with the participation of many powers like the US, Russia, China, India and Japan.

Defence Ministers attended the opening ceremony of the ADMM+

In his opening speech, Vietnamese Defence Minister Phung Quang Thanh said that the modern world history has rarely recorded the gathering such as this, of the Defence Ministers of 18 countries in the world to discuss defence and security cooperation.

He confirmed that with ASEAN, ADMM+ is a landmark in its development process.

“This [ADMM+] is the equal and helpful playground for all participants and it plays the role of harmonizing relations, building capacity and strengthening relations and interaction among the armies of participating countries,” he stressed.

Attending the opening session, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said that the major trend in Southeast Asia and Asia-Pacific is peace, stability and cooperation but there are still latent factors that can cause instability. He hoped that the meeting would define the development direction for the forum in order to practically contribute to deal with security issues in the region.

18 Defence Ministers signed a joint declaration the same day.

Defence Ministers reviewed honour guards:

Vietnamese Defence Minister Phung Quang Thanh

Chinese Defence Minister Liang Guanglie

Russian Deputy Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov

US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates.

Indian Defence Minister Shri AK Antony

Defence Minister of New Zealand Wayne Mapp

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