India Offers Battle-Tested Counter-Terror Expertise to ASEAN, Proposes 'Youth Bridge'

India has offered to share its counter-terrorism experience with Southeast Asian partners and proposed a dedicated defence 'Youth Bridge' to deepen people-to-people ties with ASEAN, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Thursday (October 29, 2026).

Addressing the 13th ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) in Cebu, Philippines, Mr. Singh said India's counter-terrorism knowledge was not theoretical. It had, he said, been acquired through decades of confronting complex security challenges, including cross-border terrorism, and refined through real-world operations.

According to the Defence Minister, Operation Sindoor demonstrated what he described as India's proactive counter-terrorism doctrine. During that operation, he said, India dismantled terrorist infrastructure and enforced a firm line against what he termed state-sponsored terrorism. His remarks were made to a gathering of defence ministers and senior officials from ASEAN member states and the grouping's dialogue partners.

Emphasising that terrorism knows no borders, Mr. Singh said India was prepared to share its operational experience with ADMM-Plus partners through joint exercises, capacity-building programmes and intelligence sharing. Counter-terrorism is already an important area of cooperation under the ADMM-Plus framework, with India and Malaysia serving as co-chairs of the Experts' Working Group on Counter-Terrorism for the 2024-2027 cycle.

The ADMM-Plus brings together the ten ASEAN member states and eight dialogue partners — Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Russia and the United States — making it one of the largest multilateral platforms for defence and security dialogue in the Asia-Pacific region.

In what officials described as a significant proposal to broaden regional engagement, Mr. Singh called for the establishment of a defence 'Youth Bridge' to strengthen institutional connectivity between India and ASEAN countries. The initiative, he said, would promote digital innovation and capacity building while creating greater opportunities for young people to contribute to regional peace and security. ASEAN members welcomed the proposal, according to the account given at the meeting.

Turning to maritime security, the Defence Minister said India had designated 2026 as the ASEAN-India Year of Maritime Cooperation and had conducted the second ASEAN-India Maritime Exercise. He reiterated India's support for freedom of navigation, international maritime law and the security of global sea lanes.

Pointing to the Indian Navy's uninterrupted operational deployment in the Gulf of Aden since 2008, Mr. Singh said Indian naval ships had escorted thousands of merchant vessels and thwarted dozens of hijacking attempts, irrespective of the vessels' flag or nationality. The Gulf of Aden is a key corridor for global shipping and has faced repeated threats from piracy and attacks on commercial vessels in recent years.

He reaffirmed India's commitment to ASEAN centrality and to a free, open, inclusive and rules-based Indo-Pacific, stating that New Delhi would continue to serve as a reliable net security provider in the Indian Ocean Region and the wider Indo-Pacific.

The proposals come as India seeks to expand its defence diplomacy in Southeast Asia, where several countries are modernising their militaries and looking to diversify security partnerships. India's engagement with ASEAN spans joint exercises, training programmes, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief cooperation, and capacity-building in maritime domain awareness.