Major powers including US, China set to welcome expansion of Asean security hotline
- The hotline, known as the Asean Direct Communications Infrastructure, is a dialogue channel to help defuse regional tensions
- The move is aimed at boosting confidence and security-building measures in a region fraught with tensions such as the South China Sea row and the US-China contest for influence
Defence ministers from Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea and the US are expected to jointly welcome the Asean bloc’s invitation to join its ministerial-level hotline to help defuse regional tensions, official sources said on Tuesday.
“The Plus-eight countries are expected to welcome the expansion to them after they had been invited in 2019,” an Asean official said on the eve of an Asean Defence Ministers-Plus meeting to be joined by US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe and Japanese Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi.
The hotline, known as the Asean Direct Communications Infrastructure, or ADI, aims to enable a dialogue to promote de-escalation of potential conflicts and to defuse misunderstandings and misinterpretations during crisis or emergency situations.
It aims to provide secure communication by voice, fax or email, according to a concept paper that Asean defence ministers adopted in 2019 to expand the ADI to the eight so-called “plus countries” outside the group.
According to a draft declaration seen by Kyodo News, the 18 defence ministers on Wednesday will “welcome the expansion of the Asean Direct Communications Infrastructure (ADI) in the ADMM Process to the Plus Countries”.