The Defence Minister AK Antony today left New Delhi for a five-day visit to Vietnam to attend the first ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting at Hanoi next week. He is being accompanied by a high level delegation including the Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar and representatives of the three Services. Our correspondent reports that Mr.Antony's visit to Vietnam assumes significance in the backdrop of the fact that Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh is visiting that country later this month where regional issues are likely to get priority. It may be recalled that during the Fourth Defence Minister's meet held in last May, they agreed to establish an ADMM-Plus forum comprising the 10 ASEAN countries and 8 non-ASEAN countries namely, Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand. Republic of Korea, Russia and the United States. The new body seeks to address the regional peace and security challenges by providing a balanced and inclusive security architecture for the region as a whole and provide opportunities to build mutual trust and confidence among the defence establishments of the ASEAN and the Plus countries.On the sidelines of the meetings, Mr.Antony will also have bilateral meetings with the Defence Ministers of other countries. His visit to Vietnam will also be an opportunity for a series of bilateral meetings with the Vietnamese Defence Minister Gen Phung Quang Thanh and other Vietnamese leaders for discussion on issues of mutual interest. The defence minister had toured Vietnam in December 2007 on a bilateral visit. This was followed by the visit of the Vietnamese Defence Minister to India in November 2009.