Minister of National Defence Tea Banh spoke at the ceremonial handover from Brunei to Cambodia of the chairmanship of the ASEAN Defence Minister’s Meeting (ADMM) for 2022, urging ASEAN’s member states to remain resolute in the coming era of increased geopolitical competition and other shared security burdens so that all of ASEAN can move forward together and enjoy the benefits of stability and peace.

He made these remarks at an online version of the traditional ADMM retreat – a special side-gathering just for defence ministers – which also served as the ASEAN-Republic of Korea informal defence ministers’ meeting and the informal ASEAN-Australia defence ministers’ meeting.

All of the meetings were hosted by Brunei and took place via videoconference on November 10.

“ASEAN must unite to maintain its resilience and strength in the face of pressure and influence resulting from increased geopolitical competition, transnational crime, terrorism, climate change and disease,” Tea Banh said. “Doing so will ensure that we continue to move towards peace, security and sustainable prosperity.”

As chair of ADMM 2022, Cambodia has chosen the theme of “Solidarity for Harmonious Security” as its basic conceptual message.

Tea Banh said that as the chair of ASEAN and the host of the ADMM in 2022, Cambodia would show a firm commitment to strengthening peace, stability and regional prosperity efforts by upholding Hun Sen’s principle philosophy requiring “win-win” solutions for the resolution of all disputes.

He also touched on Cambodia’s commitment to increasing the role of women in ASEAN and pledged to increase their participation in UN peacekeeping operations.

“[We will] urge cross-border cooperation between the [governments] of ASEAN countries in response to the global [Covid-19] pandemic and we will increase efforts to fully implement the three-year action plan of the ADMM to promote trust and transparency,” Tea Banh said.

He said Cambodia will also focus on strengthening ASEAN’s core role regionally and the bloc’s unity by enhancing international communication mechanisms within the region and with key external partners.

Tea Banh said that all of Cambodia’s initiatives as ASEAN chair will be based on the principles set out in the ASEAN charter and the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia along with the ASEAN Vision for the Indo-Pacific policy.

“We are confident that the priorities we’ve set for ADMM 2022 will continue to strengthen ASEAN solidarity and ASEAN centrality with leading roles for ASEAN both in the region and on the international stage,” Tea Banh concluded.