The Ministry of National Defense has said on Wednesday that "standalone countries outside the region is completely responsible" for the failed release of a joint declaration by the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting Plus this year.

As an important dialogue platform on East Asia security, the Third ADMM-Plus was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from Tuesday to Wednesday.

Beijing "feels regretful" toward the failure of the release, the information office of the ministry said on Wednesday without specifying the names or numbers of "the standalone countries".

The annual gathering gathered defense ministers of the 10 ASEAN countries, plus those from Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Russia and the United States.

"It needs to be pointed out that China has maintained close coordination and communication with the chairing state Malaysia regarding the draft contents of the joint declaration, and has reached consensus with Malaysia and the rest ASEAN countries upon the content of the joint declaration," the ministry said.

However, the standalone regional outsiders "has attempted to force contents - which are not within the scope of the meeting's discussions - into the joint declaration", according to the ministry.

Such actions "completely betrayed the guiding principles of the ADMM-Plus and damaged the central status and leading role of the ASEAN in the mechanism", it added.

The ministry has called upon all the parties to cherish the hard-won cooperative atmosphere of the ADMM-Plus, abide by the guiding spirits, principles and goals of the mechanism, and play constructive roles in its future development.