The ASEAN defence senior officials' meeting plus dialogue partners kicked off here on Thursday to strengthen cooperation for regional peace and security.

"The meeting aims at strengthening and expanding security and defence cooperation in the fields of maritime security, peace keeping, anti-terrorism, human assistance on disaster relief and military medicine," Lt. Gen. Nem Sowath, director general of the Defence Ministry's Policy and Foreign Affairs Department, told reporters after the opening ceremony.

Participants included defence senior officials of ASEAN and its dialogue partners of the United States, Russia, China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

"The cooperation between ASEAN and its dialogue partners is very important to maintain peace and security in the whole region," he said.

The one-day meeting would discuss the draft Concept Paper on Review of Frequency of ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting -Plus ( ADMM-Plus) meeting for convening the ADMM-Plus meeting once every two years instead of three years.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was established in 1967. It groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.