On Thursday, Brunei will host top defense officials from the ASEAN member countries and eight "plus" states of Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Russia and the US under the framework of the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus).

In the context of increasing tension on territorial disputes in the Asia-Pacific region, there is expectation that the meeting will achieve some concrete progress in addressing the current predicament. However, it may be difficult for this framework to shoulder this responsibility now.

The ADMM-Plus is not the appropriate platform to discuss territorial disputes.

Back at the first ADMM-Plus in 2010, the countries involved reached an agreement that this institution would focus on five areas of cooperation: maritime security, counter-terrorism, disaster management, peacekeeping operations and military medicine.

Since then, the ADMM-Plus has achieved a lot in less sensitive areas such as disaster relief and land cooperation. But maritime security, one of the most crucial concerns among all countries, has seen little progress.

There is weak mutual trust and foundation for cooperation among ASEAN-Plus states. Some claimants irresponsibly escalated the tensions in related waters and sought to make their disputes with China a problem that needs to be addressed in a multilateral framework, in order to gain an advantageous position in counterbalancing China.

The development of maritime strength of these countries is imbalanced. This is a practical obstacle for them in carrying out joint operations.

Facing with more uncertainties in South China Sea, ASEAN believes that joint development in the waters may play a positive role in easing tensions and promoting the resolution of the disputes.

China attaches importance to ASEAN's appeal and has given a constructive response. On August 2 when Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Surakiart Sathirathai, chairman of the Asian Peace Reconciliation Council and former Thai deputy prime minister, Wang proposed three ways to solve the South China Sea disputes, one of which is to search for ways of "joint development."

At this ASEAN-Plus, it is expected that all participants can have a unified voice to push forward some progress in maritime security. The failure of issuing a joint communiqué at last year's ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Phnom Penh made the member states pay more attention to the unity of the organization.

Since then, ASEAN has been working on narrowing the differences and improving consensus. At the ADMM-Plus this time, it is time for all the participants to work collaboratively instead of maximizing their own interests.

From this perspective, the topics concerning the sovereignty of the South China Sea should not be included in this ADMM-Plus. China still believes that the disputes should be addressed by bilateral talks. The internationalization of this issue will only make the situation more complicated and undermine the unity of ASEAN.

The role of ADMM-Plus should be a platform for the participants to exchange views about the security issues and promote mutual trust and understanding. If it sticks to working on issues that benefit all the states involved, this meeting will be fruitful.

The article was compiled by Global Times reporter Wang Wenwen based on an interview with Su Xiaohui, deputy director of the Department of International and Strategic Studies at the China Institute of International Studies. wangwenwen@globaltimes.com.cn