JAPAN, Thursday 7 May 2015 – Representatives from the 24 member nations of the ASEAN Regional Forum, ASEAN Secretariat and European Union convened today for the ASEAN Regional Forum Defence Officials’ Dialogue (ARF DOD), held at the Keio Plaza Hotel, Tokyo, Japan.
The Meeting was co-chaired by Mr. Kengo Sato, Director, Office of International Security Policy Bureau of Defense Policy, Ministry of Defence, Japan, and Mr Ahmad Nadzri bin Mohd Hassan, Undersecretary, Policy and Strategic Planning Division, Ministry of Defence, Malaysia.
Representing Brunei Darussalam at the meeting were senior officials from the Ministry of Defence and representative from the Brunei Darussalam Embassy in Tokyo.
The highlight of the meeting was focused on the discussion to streamline the ARF DOD meetings, proposing the reduction in frequency.
The meeting also heard presentations by representatives from United States, Indonesia, Canada, Singapore, Pakistan and the European Union on respective countries’ national efforts and perspectives on the issue of global terrorism.
The meeting saw an active discussion whereby member nations shared information and exchanged views on the issues. The meeting was also briefed by the European Union on the achievements of its Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) missions and operations over the last 10 years; as well as a briefing by representative from Russia on the recently concluded Moscow Conference on International Security that was held in Moscow in April 2015.
One of the objectives of the ARF DOD is to share best practices among member nations on areas of collective regional security interests. The ARF DOD remains an important platform from continued dialogue as well as building people-to-people relationships.
