9th NADI Meeting 2016
The 9th NADI Annual Meeting, hosted by the Military Science and History Department, Ministry of National Defence, Lao PDR, was held at the Don Chan Palace Hotel, Vientiane, Lao PDR, from 23 to 26 March 2016. Colonel Soulyvanh Sengchanh (Deputy Director General, Military Science and History Department) chaired the Workshop. Representatives from the NADI institutions of Brunei, Cambodia Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam attended the Workshop. The agenda focused on: (i) Regional Political and Security Outlook: New Emerging Trends and Challenges; (ii) Enhancing ASEAN Defence Cooperation in Handling Non-Traditional Threats and Challenges to the Future Development of the ASEAN Community; and (iii) Maintaining ASEAN Defence and Security Cooperation for a Dynamic ASEAN Economic Community. The NADI delegates had useful exchanges of views on these three topics. They widely agreed that non-traditional security issues remained most pressing and urgent, especially the illicit trade of small arms and light weapons, drug trafficking and other transnational crimes. They also highlighted the importance of cooperation between the military, civil society organisations and the private sector in addressing these issues. The 9th NADI Annual Meeting also concurred on the recommendations to enhance cooperation in addressing non-traditional security issues towards enhancing the ASEAN Community, to be made to the ADMM Track for their consideration.