Look at what the ships actually practised at sea: search and rescue, hydrographic survey, casualty and medical evacuation, deck landing qualification, and assistance to vessels aground. Not one of those is a warfighting task. That is not an oversight in the programme. It is the programme.
INS Sahyadri, a frontline stealth frigate, and INS Kulish, a missile corvette, concluded India's participation in the 23rd ADMM-Plus Experts' Working Group on Maritime Security Joint Cooperation Activity (EWG-MS JCA) at Subic Bay, Philippines, with the closing ceremony on 25 September 2026. The activity had begun on 21 September at Naval Operating Base Subic, hosted by the Philippine Navy and co-chaired by Japan.
What ADMM-Plus is
Examinations reliably confuse the ASEAN-centred bodies, and this one is worth pinning down precisely.
ADMM is the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting — the defence ministers of the ASEAN member states. ADMM-Plus adds eight Dialogue Partners: Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation and the United States. It was inaugurated on 12 October 2010.
So the membership map is: ASEAN + 8. India has been a participant from the beginning.
Its practical work is organised into seven Experts' Working Groups, each covering one field of cooperation:
- Maritime Security (MS)
- Counter-Terrorism (CT)
- Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR)
- Peacekeeping Operations (PKO)
- Military Medicine (MM)
- Humanitarian Mine Action (HMA)
- Cyber Security (CS)
Each EWG is co-chaired by one ASEAN member state and one Plus country, rotating on a three-year cycle. That co-chairing formula explains the arrangement at Subic exactly: the Philippines as the ASEAN co-chair hosted, and Japan as the Plus co-chair shared the leadership. Knowing the formula lets you reconstruct the arrangement for any EWG activity you encounter.
Why the sea drills avoid combat
This is the analytical core of the item, and it is what makes ADMM-Plus worth understanding rather than merely listing.
ADMM-Plus contains both China and the United States. It contains Russia and Japan. It contains states with live, unresolved maritime disputes with one another — including in the South China Sea, where Subic Bay itself sits on the Philippine coast.
A forum with that membership cannot run a combat exercise. There is no scenario, no notional adversary and no tactical serial that all eighteen participants could accept, because any realistic warfighting scenario implies somebody in the room is the opponent.
What such a forum can do is practise the tasks where every navy's interest genuinely coincides. Consider each of the Subic serials:
Search and rescue — every state wants a distressed mariner rescued, whoever they are, and the obligation to render assistance at sea is among the oldest in maritime law.
Hydrographic survey — accurate charts serve all shipping. Uncharted shoals are indifferent to flag.
Casualty and medical evacuation — moving an injured person from a ship to definitive care is a shared humanitarian task, and doing it between two navies requires compatible stretcher rigs, helicopter procedures and medical handover protocols.
Deck landing qualification — certifying a helicopter and its crew to land on another navy's flight deck. Unglamorous, and the precondition for every one of the above: an aircraft that cannot legally or safely land on a partner's ship cannot evacuate anyone from it.
Assistance to vessels aground — a grounded ship is a navigational hazard and a pollution risk to everyone nearby.
These are constabulary and cooperative tasks rather than combat tasks. The technical term for what they build is interoperability at the humanitarian end of the spectrum — and the strategic point is that it is real interoperability nonetheless. Two navies that can pass a casualty between them, share a common radio picture and land each other's helicopters have a working relationship that exists before any crisis. That is the confidence-building logic on which ADMM-Plus is built, and it is why the forum's activities look modest while its political value is not.
The harbour phase worked the same way. It featured Subject Matter Expert Exchanges on Peace and Security, the ASEAN Navy Chiefs' Meeting and Guidelines for Maritime Interaction (ANCM-GMI), Senior Enlisted Leadership and Marine Environmental Protection, alongside sporting events and an International Day and Cultural Show. On 22 September the Indian contingent took part in Operational Synchronisation and a Tabletop Exercise, followed by a Pre-Sail Conference to coordinate the sea phase, and a community engagement programme at the Shepherds of the Hill Center, Zambales.
Two of those deserve a note. The Guidelines for Maritime Interaction are the kind of instrument that prevents incidents — agreed procedures for what warships of different navies do when they encounter each other unexpectedly, which is how an accident is stopped from becoming a confrontation. And a Tabletop Exercise is a discussion-based rehearsal, run around a map or a plan rather than at sea: it is where the plan is tested and disagreements surface cheaply, before ships are committed. A Pre-Sail Conference then fixes the detail — frequencies, callsigns, formations, emergency actions — which is the same function the harbour phase serves in a bilateral exercise, as we set out in our explainer on the shape of SLINEX.
Where this sits in India's policy
India's participation was framed as consonant with the Act East Policy and the vision of MAHASAGAR — Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions — the successor framing to SAGAR, covered in our piece on Vision MAHASAGAR.
The distinction worth holding is between the bilateral and the multilateral strands of Indian naval diplomacy, because they do different work. Bilateral exercises — SLINEX with Sri Lanka, Samudra Laksamana with Malaysia, Varuna with France — can be as demanding as the two navies choose, up to and including high-end warfighting serials. Multilateral activity inside an inclusive forum like ADMM-Plus is constrained to what everyone can accept, and its value lies in presence and normalisation rather than tactical development.
India needs both. The bilateral relationships build capability; the multilateral presence establishes that the Indian Navy is a routine participant in the security architecture of a region where most of India's trade passes. The economic weight behind that is set out in our explainer on the East Asia Summit and the ASEAN-India economic consultation.
INS Sahyadri is a Shivalik-class stealth frigate, built at Mazagon Dock, Mumbai — the class being India's first indigenously designed stealth frigates. INS Kulish is a Kora-class missile corvette, built at Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers, Kolkata. Sending one of each is a deliberate pairing: a large multi-role platform and a smaller missile combatant demonstrate different parts of the fleet in one deployment.
🔑 Revision block
- The activity: 23rd ADMM-Plus Experts' Working Group on Maritime Security Joint Cooperation Activity (EWG-MS JCA), Subic Bay, Philippines
- Dates: commenced 21 September 2026 at Naval Operating Base Subic; closing ceremony 25 September 2026
- Hosted by: the Philippine Navy; co-chaired by Japan
- Indian ships: INS Sahyadri (Shivalik-class stealth frigate, Mazagon Dock) and INS Kulish (Kora-class missile corvette, GRSE Kolkata)
- ADMM: ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting — the ASEAN member states' defence ministers
- ADMM-Plus: ASEAN plus eight Dialogue Partners — Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Russia, United States; inaugurated 12 October 2010
- Seven Experts' Working Groups: Maritime Security, Counter-Terrorism, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief, Peacekeeping Operations, Military Medicine, Humanitarian Mine Action, Cyber Security
- EWG co-chairing: one ASEAN member and one Plus country, on a three-year cycle
- Sea phase serials: search and rescue, hydrographic survey, casualty and medical evacuation, deck landing qualification, assistance to vessels aground — all non-warfighting
- Why no combat serials: the forum includes both China and the United States, and states with live maritime disputes; no warfighting scenario is acceptable to all participants
- Harbour phase: Subject Matter Expert Exchanges on Peace and Security; ASEAN Navy Chiefs' Meeting and Guidelines for Maritime Interaction (ANCM-GMI); Senior Enlisted Leadership; Marine Environmental Protection
- Tabletop Exercise: a discussion-based rehearsal around a map or plan, where disagreements surface before ships are committed
- Pre-Sail Conference: fixes frequencies, callsigns, formations and emergency actions before the sea phase
- Indian framing: Act East Policy and MAHASAGAR — Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions
- Bilateral vs multilateral: bilateral exercises can go as high-end as the two navies choose; inclusive multilateral activity is limited to what all participants accept, and delivers presence and normalisation
🎯 Practice MCQs
Q1. ADMM-Plus comprises the ASEAN member states together with how many Dialogue Partners? (a) Six (b) Eight (c) Ten (d) Twelve
→ (b) — Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Russia and the United States.
Q2. ADMM-Plus was inaugurated in: (a) 2005 (b) 2010 (c) 2015 (d) 2003
→ (b) — on 12 October 2010.
Q3. How many Experts' Working Groups does ADMM-Plus maintain? (a) Five (b) Six (c) Seven (d) Nine
→ (c) — maritime security, counter-terrorism, HADR, peacekeeping operations, military medicine, humanitarian mine action and cyber security.
Q4. Each ADMM-Plus Experts' Working Group is co-chaired by: (a) Two ASEAN member states (b) Two Plus countries (c) The ASEAN Secretariat and one Plus country (d) One ASEAN member state and one Plus country
→ (d) — on a three-year cycle.
Q5. The sea phase at Subic Bay comprised drills such as search and rescue, hydrographic survey and medical evacuation because: (a) The participating navies lack combat capability (b) Weather prevented combat serials (c) The forum includes states with opposing interests, so no warfighting scenario is acceptable to all (d) ASEAN rules prohibit exercises at sea
→ (c)
Q6. A "tabletop exercise" is: (a) A discussion-based rehearsal conducted around a map or plan rather than at sea (b) A live-firing exercise at reduced scale (c) A ceremonial reception during the harbour phase (d) A navigation competition between ships
→ (a) — disagreements surface before ships are committed.
Q7. "Deck landing qualification" during a multilateral activity means: (a) Certifying a runway for military aircraft (b) Certifying a helicopter and crew to land on another navy's flight deck (c) Qualifying a ship to carry aircraft (d) Training deck crew in firefighting
→ (b) — the precondition for cross-deck medical evacuation.
Q8. INS Sahyadri belongs to which class of warship? (a) Kamorta class (b) Shivalik class (c) Talwar class (d) Kolkata class
→ (b) — India's first indigenously designed stealth frigates, built at Mazagon Dock.
Q9. Guidelines for Maritime Interaction are intended primarily to: (a) Standardise ship design across navies (b) Allocate fishing rights (c) Establish agreed procedures when warships of different navies encounter each other unexpectedly (d) Regulate commercial shipping lanes
→ (c) — preventing an accident from becoming a confrontation.
Q10. Consider the following statements: 1. Multilateral activity in an inclusive forum can be as tactically demanding as a bilateral exercise between close partners. 2. MAHASAGAR stands for Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions. Which is/are correct? (a) 1 only (b) 2 only (c) Both 1 and 2 (d) Neither 1 nor 2
→ (b) — inclusive forums are limited to what every participant will accept.
📋 How this gets asked (PYQ pattern)
The ASEAN-centred security architecture is examined regularly in the NDA general ability paper, and the bodies are confused more often than any other set in international affairs.
The membership question is the commonest. ADMM is ASEAN's defence ministers; ADMM-Plus adds eight Dialogue Partners. The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) is the wider security dialogue at foreign-ministry level with a larger membership; the East Asia Summit is the leaders' forum. Four bodies, and the efficient way to hold them is by who sits in the room — defence ministers, defence ministers plus eight, foreign ministries, heads of government.
The year question asks when each was established. ADMM-Plus 2010; the EAS 2005; the ARF 1994; ASEAN 1967. Four dates, and they are asked in combination.
The working-group question asks how many EWGs there are and what they cover. Seven, and the list is worth memorising because it doubles as a map of what non-traditional security cooperation consists of.
The ship question asks the class and builder of a named vessel. Sahyadri — Shivalik class, Mazagon Dock. Kulish — Kora class, GRSE. Warship-to-yard pairings recur, and the five defence shipyards are worth learning as a set.
For the SSB interview, the strongest point here is the one the drill list reveals. A candidate who explains that an inclusive forum containing both China and the United States can only practise the tasks where every interest coincides — rescue, survey, medical evacuation — and that this limitation is precisely what makes participation politically possible, is demonstrating an understanding of how confidence-building works. That is considerably better than describing the exercise as a show of strength, which it deliberately is not.
Preparing for NDA? Regional security bodies are best learnt by who attends — defence ministers, foreign ministries or heads of government — because that single distinction separates all four. Build the base with our NDA general ability notes, follow the daily NDA current affairs, and prepare with our faculty in the upcoming Cavalier courses in Delhi.
✍️ Written by Col D.N. Sharma — Defence studies faculty at The Cavalier. Reviewed by the Cavalier Faculty Desk.