Joint exercise under ADMM-Plus mechanism

The picture shows that a Singaporean officer attends a press interview. (Xinhua/Wang Jingguo)

The Humanitarian Assistance, Disaster Relief & Military Medicine Joint Exercise under the mechanism of the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus) kicked off on June 17, 2013 in Bandar Seri Begawan, capital of the State of Brunei Darussalam. A total of 2,000-odd officers and men from 18 member states of the ADMM-Plus took part in the joint exercise.

The exercise is the first-ever joint one held under the ADMM-Plus mechanism. It was against the background that a typhoon hit a Southeast Asian country and caused such secondary disasters as flood and mud-rock flow. Under the command of the directing department, the participating troops from various countries carried out drills on such subjects as personnel search and rescue, medical treatment, repair and restoration of roads and bridges, materials distribution and epidemic prevention.

The Chinese side dispatched a total of 110 officers and men including commander, staff officers, engineers and medical detachment. Besides, such activities as drill on medical treatment, professional seminar and experience exchange on military medical service will be held on the "Peace Ark" hospital ship of the Navy of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLAN).

During the four-day-long joint exercise, the Chinese troops will take part in all the drills of main subjects, and mix up themselves with other participating troops to carry out joint training and operations. The militaries of Russia, the United States, India, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia dispatched warships and airplanes to attend the exercise.

The ADMM-Plus is a defense ministers' meeting among the ten member states of the ASEAN, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, India, the U.S. and Russia, and is the highest-level official multilateral security mechanism on defense affairs in the Asia-Pacific region. It gives priority to pragmatic cooperation in five non-traditional security fields, that is, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, maritime security, anti-terrorism, peacekeeping operations and military medicine.