ASEAN member states are discussing the establishment of a hotline formaritime disputes at a technical workshop held in Gadong, Brunei, fromAugust 26-28.

The Brunei Times quoted Colonel (Rtd)PgDatoPadukaHjAzmanshamPgHj Mohammad, Permanent Secretary of DefencePolicy and Development at Brunei’s Ministry of Defence (MinDef) assaying at the opening of the event that there will be a wide range ofissues that need to be considered for the arrangement of theestablishment and operation of the hotline.

Theparticipants, comprising members of ASEAN nations and secretariat, areexpected to come up with the operational concept of the directcommunication link; and the technical and technological parameters ofthe communications systems of the direct communications link.

Experts from Singapore, Australia, China, India, the United States,Britain and South Africa are invited to the event to share theirexperience and expertise in the field.

The directcommunications link was proposed by the Sultan of Brunei in his capacityas Chairman of the 22nd ASEAN Summit last year, to prevent theescalation of maritime disputes in the region.

The hotline aimed to provide a permanent, rapid, reliable and confidential means for ASEAN Defence Ministers.

The ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM) held in Myanmar in Mayadopted the Concept Paper on Establishing a Direct Communications Linkin the ADMM Process, and pledged full support to the implementation ofthe hotline by the next meeting in Malaysia.

Brunei also hosted the first workshop to explore measures in forming the hotline in February.-VNA