Venturing into Defense and Military Cooperation, For a long time, security cooperation in ASEAN and the Asia Pacific was led by foreign affairs officials. Defense officials may attend some of the security meetings. With the rise of defense diplomacy notably since the mid-1990s, they began to take part in some of the security discussions, like those sponsored by ARF. ADMM is regarded as the first step in the realization of the ASC. In January 2007, ASEAN decided to move forward the formation of the ASC, or for that matter, the ASEAN Community, to 2015. Towards the end of the year, ASC was revised as the ASEAN Political-Security Community (APSC).