ASEAN Strategic Policy Dialogue on Disaster Management 2026

The 11th ASEAN Strategic Policy Dialogue on Disaster Management (SPDDM) was held in Singapore in August 2026. In the opening speech on 19 August 2026, the Minister for Law and Second Minister for Home Affairs described the dialogue as a platform for ASEAN members and external partners to exchange practices and turn regional disaster-management ideas into implementation (MHA, 19 August 2026).

Regional disaster-management context

The 2026 dialogue marked the 10th anniversary of the One ASEAN, One Response declaration, which aims to increase the speed, scale and solidarity of ASEAN disaster response. The speech also noted that the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER) Work Programme for 2026–2030 had been launched, and that the ASEAN Standard Operating Procedure for Regional Standby Arrangements and Coordination of Joint Disaster Relief and Emergency Operations (SASOP) had been updated to include civil-military coordination and Emergency Medical Teams (MHA, 19 August 2026).

These are regional mechanisms, not Singapore-only schemes. ASEAN-ERAT teams are made up of trained disaster-management professionals from member states and support rapid needs assessment, information management and humanitarian logistics. The speech reported that almost 60 officers had completed ASEAN-ERAT Level 2 specialist courses, while around 45 officers had completed AHA Centre leadership courses; these figures describe course completions reported at the 2026 dialogue, not the total regional workforce (MHA, 19 August 2026).

Singapore's announced 2027 exercise role

Singapore is scheduled to take the ASEAN Chairmanship in 2027. At SPDDM 2026, it announced that Singapore would host the 10th ASEAN Regional Disaster Emergency Response Simulation Exercise, ARDEX-27. The exercise is intended to test and validate regional disaster-response procedures and cross-sector coordination, with ASEAN member states encouraged to participate actively (MHA, 19 August 2026).

As of the MHA speech, ARDEX-27 was an announced future exercise: its date not specified, scenario not specified, and venue not specified; exercise results not available. It should not be represented as already conducted or as proof that a specific response capability has been validated.

Climate adaptation and anticipatory action

The speech connected disaster preparedness with climate adaptation. Singapore designated 2026 as the Year of Climate Adaptation and was developing a National Adaptation Plan, supported by a $40 million commitment to heat-resilience research and development. SPDDM 2026 also focused on upstream measures such as anticipatory action, risk-information systems and early-warning mechanisms, rather than relying only on response after a disaster occurs (MHA, 19 August 2026).

The dialogue was co-organised by the Singapore Civil Defence Force, the ASEAN Secretariat and the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance (AHA Centre). Its role was policy dialogue and regional capacity-building; it did not itself create a new Singapore statutory disaster-response power or replace national emergency-management arrangements (MHA, 19 August 2026).