India and Malaysia are jointly co-chairing the Experts' Working Group on counter-terrorism under ADMM-Plus for the 2024–2027 cycle. ADMM-Plus is the defence ministers' forum of ASEAN's ten members plus eight dialogue partners, including India. The co-chairmanship reflects India's deepening defence diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific and its institutional engagement with ASEAN-led security architecture beyond bilateral arrangements.

ADMM-Plus (ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting Plus) is the principal multilateral defence cooperation mechanism in the Asia-Pacific. Established in 2010, it brings together the ten ASEAN member states and eight dialogue partners — Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Russia, and the United States — to advance practical security cooperation.

The forum operates through Experts' Working Groups (EWGs) on specific themes: counter-terrorism, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR), maritime security, military medicine, peacekeeping operations, humanitarian mine action, and cyber security. Each EWG is co-chaired by one ASEAN and one Plus-country, rotating every three years.

India co-chairing the counter-terrorism EWG with Malaysia (an ASEAN member) for 2024–2027 is institutionally significant for two reasons. First, it places India at the operational centre of ASEAN's multilateral counter-terrorism dialogue — not merely as an observer but as a co-driver of the agenda. Second, it reflects India's Act East Policy in action: deepening strategic engagement with Southeast Asia through defence institutions rather than just trade or cultural links.

For exam purposes, ADMM-Plus sits at the intersection of India's multilateral defence diplomacy, ASEAN centrality, and Indo-Pacific strategy — all high-frequency UPSC themes. The distinction between ADMM (ASEAN-only) and ADMM-Plus (ASEAN + 8 partners) is a classic examiner distractor.