The United States aims to support a Southeast Asian region free of coercion where safety, security, sovereignty, self-determination, and prosperity are shepherded by ASEAN centrality. U.S. defense cooperation with Southeast Asian allies and partners, centered on ASEAN and its member states, seeks to empower the region through practical cooperation on building capabilities, exchanging expertise, ensuring free trade, and bolstering sovereignty, all underscored with collaboration and mutual respect.
The United States has worked closely with ASEAN on defense and security in the Indo-Pacific region since former Defense Secretary Robert Gates attended the inaugural ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) in 2010. And at every ADMM-Plus since, a U.S. Secretary of Defense has attended and supported ASEAN. As we mark the fifteenth anniversary of the ADMM-Plus in 2025, we reflect on the ties of friendship and cooperation among our countries and those who defend us. The United States welcomes a strong ASEAN that speaks with a powerful voice on key issues and plays a leading role in upholding shared principles and international law. These aspirations, as articulated in the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific, envision ASEAN playing a central role in ensuring peace, security, stability, and prosperity for the peoples across the Indo-Pacific. The principles on which the Outlook is based are complimentary with those in the United States' Indo-Pacific Strategy, which seeks to promote sovereignty, transparency, good governance, and a rules-based international order in conjunction with our allies and partners.
The United States' vision for defense capacity building reflects the history of U.S. investment in the Indo-Pacific's regional security architecture, which has supported the sovereignty, self-determination, and defense capabilities of Southeast Asian countries. Since 2005, the United States has:
- Elevated the U.S.-ASEAN relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2023, under the leadership of President Biden.
- Delivered more than $17 billion in foreign military sales to ASEAN Member States, providing world-class capabilities to address our partners' security needs.
- Conducted 40 bilateral and multilateral exercises with Southeast Asian nations on an annual basis, representing a commitment of 30,000 forces to support our partners' readiness and interoperability.
- Provided world-class professional military education to more than 76,000 students from Southeast Asia since 2005, advancing people-to-people ties and partner capabilities.
- Provided a maritime common operating picture and enhanced the maritime operational capabilities of seven ASEAN Member States through more than $475 million via the Maritime Security Initiative since 2016.
- Trained together with regional allies and partners to respond to natural disasters and operated together in real-world relief efforts in their wake.
Key Lines of Effort
Building on this robust base of defense cooperation, the United States seeks to advance the collective capacity of ASEAN and individual Southeast Asian nations by investing in the following areas:
- Domain Awareness and Defense: Securing domain awareness, whether in the air, maritime, cyber space, or information environment — is a foundational aspect of supporting Southeast Asian allies and partners' sovereignty. It is the first step to enabling domain defense, including the capacity to respond to illegal intrusions and coercion. The United States will advance Southeast Asian nations' capacity building in domain awareness through the following programs:
- Air: The United States will continue ongoing efforts to improve the capability of Southeast Asian partners to detect and identify activity within their sovereign airspace, including their Economic Exclusion Zones and Air Defense Identification Zones; fuse that information within their government information systems; and exercise their sovereign authorities, commitments to international agreements, and their ability to share the information regionally.
- Cyber: The United States will enhance engagement with the ADMM Cybersecurity and Information Centre of Excellence (ACICE) in Singapore through programs including table-top exercises to identify capacity gaps in regional response to cyber threats and training courses for cyber security professionals.
- Maritime: The United States will enhance maritime capacity building programs with a focus on using commercially available technologies to expand maritime domain awareness, continuous presence, and scientific research through unmanned systems complemented by artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to maximize awareness. Experts on maritime domain awareness will identify opportunities to support regional cooperation and synergies in this area, enabling Southeast Asian partners to protect their maritime territories more effectively under international law.
- Exercises: In addition to the annual comprehensive calendar of bilateral and multilateral exercises undertaken alongside Southeast Asian allies and partners throughout the Indo-Pacific region, including BALIKATAN, COBRA GOLD, and SUPER GARUDA SHIELD, the United States will convene a second ASEAN-U.S. maritime exercise in 2025. We will also work to develop targeted capabilities through U.S. participation in the ADMM-Plus Expert Working Groups and related training exercises. Finally, we will work to expand the cooperation of Southeast Asian allies and partners through multilateral exercises and activities, building interoperability and relationships that promote resilience and peace.
- Education and Training: The United States will continue to offer a broad range of training and educational opportunities to ASEAN partners, with the Emerging Defense Leaders' Program — which supports the professional development of young Southeast Asian defense officials — as a core offering. These specialized courses exist in addition to longstanding International Military Education and Training (IMET) courses for Southeast Asian ally and partner military officers and defense civilians. Furthermore, the Department of Defense's State Partnership Program — executed through the National Guard Bureau — has created lasting partnerships between the United States and six Southeast Asian nations.
- Defense Industrial Capacity Building: In addition to security assistance, the United States will work to promote the defense industrial capacity of our Southeast Asian partners by leveraging government, academic, and industry engagements to deepen collaboration and promote mutually beneficial investments toward a more robust and integrated defense industrial base. These activities may include components such as science and technology demonstrations, academic exchanges and workshops, and industry prize challenges.
- Defense Institutional Capacity Building: The United States supports the development of ASEAN's institutional capacity through robust participation in ADMM-Plus Expert Working Groups (EWGs). Between 2011-2013, the United States served successively as a co-chair for the Counterterrorism, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief, and Maritime Security EWGs, upholding international rules and norms focused on practical cooperation with ASEAN partners. In 2024, the United States became co-chair of the Military Medicine EWG with Indonesia, increasing medical expertise and incorporating the application of Women, Peace, and Security principles in partners' defense planning and operations. Additionally, our Ministry of Defense Advisors will continue to support professional development within partner ministries of ASEAN member states on a bilateral basis.
- Defense Mitigation of Climate Impacts: With input from ASEAN Member States, the United States will develop a series of workshops, technical demonstrations, and tabletop exercises to address climate resilience shortfalls and provide a platform for member states to share expertise in addressing climate change impacts to their respective defense organizations, readiness, and operational capacities.
Timor Leste Accession: The United States supports ASEAN's decision-in-principle to admit Timor Leste as the eleventh member of ASEAN. We envision including Timor Leste in all lines of effort listed above as appropriate and in accordance with the Road Map for Accession. The United States is prepared to offer Timor Leste capacity building assistance in the defense sector to help it meet accession milestones.
