Southeast Asia agrees guidelines on air encounters, terrorism data swaps

Southeast Asian defence ministers on Friday agreed to a set of guidelines to manage unexpected aerial encounters between their military aircraft, and a deal to exchange information on terrorism and extremism.

The leaders of the ten-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) grouping signed the joint declaration following a meeting in Singapore.

A code to manage unexpected encounters at sea already exists and was adopted last year by ASEAN countries alongside Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russian Federation, and the United States.

All 10 also agreed to adopt the "our eyes" initiative, launched by six member-states in January, as a platform to exchange information on terrorism, radicalism, violent extremism, and other "non-traditional" threats in the region.