02 Aug 2007 | Diplomacy
ASEAN MILITARY CHIEFS MEET TO STRENGTHEN COOPERATION
STORY // Brendan Mark Foo
PHOTO // Chua Soon Lye
PHOTO // Chua Soon Lye
The Chiefs of Defence Force (CDF) from the ASEAN countries - Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam and Singapore - held their fifth informal meeting on 2 Aug in Singapore.
For the first time in the history of the ASEAN CDF Informal Meeting (ACDFIM), all 10 ASEAN militaries were represented at this meeting which was chaired by Singapore's CDF Lieutenant-General (LG) Desmond Kuek.
The ACDFIM started five years ago as an informal networking and confidence building platform amongst the ASEAN CDFs. It has since developed into an important avenue for ASEAN militaries to build capacity and strengthen practical cooperation.
In line with this year's theme, "Enhancing capacity in addressing security challenges through sharing expertise", the CDFs agreed to work together to address common security challenges in maritime security, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, counter-terrorism, infectious diseases management and peace-keeping.
They also agreed to strengthen cooperation amongst their militaries through information sharing, intelligence cooperation and capacity-building activities such as exercises and workshops.
ASEAN's Dialogue Partners and other experts could be invited to attend future meetings to share their knowledge on issues of common security concern.
The 5th ACDFIM adopted a resolution which specified a series of capacity-building activities that the ASEAN militaries have volunteered to organise in the next two years.
As part of the meeting's programme, the ASEAN CDFs jointly called on Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Second Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen.
For the first time in the history of the ASEAN CDF Informal Meeting (ACDFIM), all 10 ASEAN militaries were represented at this meeting which was chaired by Singapore's CDF Lieutenant-General (LG) Desmond Kuek.
The ACDFIM started five years ago as an informal networking and confidence building platform amongst the ASEAN CDFs. It has since developed into an important avenue for ASEAN militaries to build capacity and strengthen practical cooperation.
In line with this year's theme, "Enhancing capacity in addressing security challenges through sharing expertise", the CDFs agreed to work together to address common security challenges in maritime security, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, counter-terrorism, infectious diseases management and peace-keeping.
They also agreed to strengthen cooperation amongst their militaries through information sharing, intelligence cooperation and capacity-building activities such as exercises and workshops.
ASEAN's Dialogue Partners and other experts could be invited to attend future meetings to share their knowledge on issues of common security concern.
The 5th ACDFIM adopted a resolution which specified a series of capacity-building activities that the ASEAN militaries have volunteered to organise in the next two years.
As part of the meeting's programme, the ASEAN CDFs jointly called on Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Second Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen.
