Payne off to regional security meeting

Defence Minister Marise Payne is off to Malaysia this week for meetings with defence ministers from 18 regional nations.

Ms Payne said the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting-Plus, with its focus on practical military co-operation, was Australia's top priority for regional defence engagement.

With Singapore, Australia co-chairs the ADMM-Plus Counter-terrorism Experts' Working Group, which has been working on building regional counter-terrorism capability, will culminate with a major maritime security and counter-terrorism exercise in Singapore and Brunei next May.