SINGAPORE, Monday 21 January 2013 – The ADMM-Plus HADR/MM Ex Second Steering Committee Meeting was held today at the Marina Mandarin Hotel, Singapore. The meeting was chaired by First Admiral Dato Seri Pahlawan Abdul Aziz bin Haji Mohd Tamit, Joint Force Commander, Royal Brunei Armed Forces, with the presence of the other four key Steering Committee members – the Co-Chairs of the ADMM-Plus Experts’ Working Group on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) and Military Medicine (MM), namely, Vietnam & China, and Singapore & Japan respectively.
The second Steering Committee Meeting updated and endorsed several proposals that were made as part of the action plans subsequent to the first Steering Committee Meeting held in Brunei Darussalam on 28 November 2012. The agreed elements of the meeting will be brought forward for the main meeting that will be on 23 January 2013. This main meeting is the Middle Planning Conference (MPC) for the first ADMM-Plus HADR/MM Exercise which will bring together 18 ADMM-Plus countries and representatives of the ASEAN Secretariat. The series of meeting this week will also include the Middle Planning Conference for the second ASEAN Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Exercise (2nd AHX) where Brunei Darussalam will also be hosting this year together with Singapore.
The second Steering Committee Meeting focused on confirming the contribution of military assets and personnel from the participating countries, confirmation of the exercise design, discussion on the exercise related documents including the Exercise Standing Operation Procedure and Exercise Instruction and the establishment of the 10 Working Groups that was endorsed during the first Steering Committee Meeting back in November last year.
The inaugural ADMM-Plus HADR/MM Exercise is scheduled to be held on 17 to 20 June 2013, back-to-back with the 2nd AHX on 16 June 2013. Both Exercises are the major deliverables during Brunei Darussalam’s ADMM and ADMM-Plus Chairmanship this year.