Defense chief off to Vietnam for Asean security meet

MANILA, Philippines –  Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin left for Vietnam yesterday for a three-day security dialogue with his regional counterparts from member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Economic powerhouses United States (US), China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India will also be sending observers to the ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting Plus Eight (ADMM +8) to be held in Hanoi on Oct. 12.

The meeting is the biggest formal collaboration of defense ministers in Asia. This year, the 18 countries participating in the dialogue would lay down the institutional foundation for continuing dialogues and cooperation.

“As a key regional player, the Philippines needs to undertake continuing dialogues with interest parties, our ASEAN neighbors in particular, on practical means of cooperation for a stable regional security,” Gazmin said in a press statement.

Gazmin is scheduled to meet separately with eight defense observers, including US and China.

The Philippines, ASEAN states Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam, as well as China have territorial claims over the Spratlys Islands. 

Except for Brunei, all claimant countries have troops deployed in their claimed areas, a move described by foreign defense and military observers as a powder keg waiting to explode.

Conflict has been kept at bay by an agreement between claimant states to keep the status quo and resolve through dialogue any conflict arising from their claims.