by Vo Mai Nguyen Phuong

HANOI, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- The first ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus) will be held here on Oct. 12, drawing defense ministers or representatives from ten Southeast Asian countries and their eight dialogue partners including Australia, China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Russia and the United States, according to a press conference held here on Thursday. The first ADMM-Plus has a special political and historical importance, marking the start of a new defense and security cooperation mechanism in the emerging security architecture, said Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Defense Nguyen Chi Vinh here at the press conference on Thursday.

Vinh said that there will be attendances of 15 defense ministers out of 18 delegations coming to the meeting.

Among the ten countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), only Brunei and Myanmar will send their deputy defense minister and the representative of the defense minister respectively to the meeting.

Meanwhile, defense ministers of ASEAN dialogue partners except Russia have confirmed their participation in the meeting, according to Vinh.

Vinh said that as the meeting is the first one of defense ministers from ASEAN and its dialogue partners and it aims to demonstrate political will of participating countries, participants will discuss general security topics without referring to specific issues such as the South China Sea or the Korean Peninsula.

However, there will be a session where participants can raise security issues of their concerns, he said. In fact, the meeting is aimed at seeking common points in participating countries' security policies for cooperation among them.

Delegates will focus their discussions on five prioritized cooperation areas including humanitarian aid, disaster relief, maritime security, counter-terrorism, and peace-keeping operations, said Vinh.

Besides, they will spend much time on discussing the ways for practical cooperation within the framework of ADMM- Plus, he said.

At the end of the meeting, participants are expected to adopt a joint declaration, reflecting the political will and commitments for practical cooperation of participating countries for peace, stability and development in the region and the interests of each country.

Vietnam, as the host country for the meeting and ASEAN Chair this year, will also issue a Chair Statement to brief the major outcomes of the meeting.