BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

MILITARY officials continue to commend Brunei’s handling of the ASEAN Defence Ministerial Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) exercise that brought together armed forces from 18 countries to partake in a humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) and military medicine (MM) drill for the first time.

During the third ADMM-Plus Expert Working Group (EWG) meeting on HADR in Nha Trang, Vietnam last Friday, co-chairs from Vietnam and China highlighted the success of the inaugural multilateral exercise.

Sr Col Do Mai Khanh of Vietnam’s Ministry of National Defence and Sr Col Zhao Bao of China’s Ministry of National Defence also thanked the participating countries for contributing to the exercise, which saw over 3,000 personnel deployed to Brunei. Numerous equipments, including seven ships and 15 helicopters, were also used in the HADR and MM Exercise that took place in June 2013. Meanwhile, Lt Gen Vo Van Tuan, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People’s Army, stressed that cooperation, information sharing and mobilising resources between member countries could prevent the severe consequences of natural disasters and climate change. Brunei was represented at the EWG meeting by its head of delegation and Head Secretariat of ADMM-Plus HADR and MM Exercise, Lt Col Mohd Shanonnizam Sulaiman.

He presented a report on Brunei’s experience of hosting the exercise, which was jointly conducted between the ADMM-Plus EWG HADR and ADMM-Plus EWG MM. Other countries also shared the experiences gained from their own HADR operations such as during Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.

Serving as a final wrap-up of the first cycle of the three-year term of the EWG HDR, the meeting concluded with a co-chairmanship handover ceremony to Laos and Japan. Prior to the handover, Laos and Japan presented their new three-year work plan that provided an outline to continue from the achievements and success of the previous cycle.

The Brunei Times