Wednesday, May 28, 2014

ASEAN Forms Defense Industry Collaboration Consultative Group

According to IHS Jane's Defence Industry, ASEAN Defense Ministers agreed to increase ASEAN defense industry cooperation:

In a joint declaration, regional defence ministers agreed to adopt the terms of reference for an "ASEAN defence industry collaboration consultative group" that will draw up a range of related activities for discussion and approval during the 9 th ADMM in Malaysia in 2015.  The consultative group will propose a framework of activities related to education and training, an outline of feasible areas of industrial collaboration, and suggest measures to overcome continuing concerns in the region about the ownership and funding of collaborative projects as well as the transfer of technologies and intellectual property between ASEAN member states.

This is another positive step for ASEAN and hopefully we'll see a definitive course of action next year. I have more on ASEAN defense cooperation at an earlier post here