MANILA – Important security issues will be taken up during the ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) in Cebu next week, Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said on Friday.
“The situation in South China Sea will also be naturally taken up and the various working group papers on critical underwater infrastructure, maritime law and security, WPS (West Philippine Sea) issues and naturally also, on a practical matter, for me, the observer teams in Cambodia and Thailand among others,” he said in an online briefing.
The 13th ADMM-Plus and the 20th ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM) in Lapu-Lapu City will be held October 26 to 30.
When asked if a representative from China, which is among the eight nations in the ADMM-Plus, will be attending, Teodoro said a notice was set to Chinese authorities Thursday.
“They were sent a notice yesterday, so I really don’t know,” the DND chief said.
The other ADMM-Plus countries are the United States, Australia, India, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea and Russia.
“Almost all the Plus countries will attend as far as I know,” Teodoro said. (Priam Nepomuceno/PNA)
