Australia, Tuesday, 1 Oct 2013 – The 6th ADMM-Plus EWG on Maritime Security Meeting was held at the Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel, Sydney, Australia. The meeting is co-chaired byCommodore Stuart Mayer, Director General Navy Capability, Plans and Engagement, Department of Defence, Australia and MadamSurianibinti Ahmad, Undersecretary, Policy and Strategic Planning Division, Ministry of Defence Malaysia. The Head of Delegation from Brunei Darussalam for the Meeting was Haji Adi IhramDatoPaduka Haji Mahmud, Acting Director of Defence Policy, accompanied by Col (L) PengiranNorazmi bin Pengiran Muhammad, Deputy Commander of Royal Brunei Navy, Captain (L) Mohammad Azrin bin Haji Mahmud, Staff Officer to Deputy Commander, Marina Abdullah Sitau, Research Officer, and Mabel Lim, Work Officer.
The 6th EWG Meeting is held from the 28th September 2013 – 1st October 2013, coinciding with the Maritime Security Field Training Exercise (MS-FTX), held at Jervis Bay, Sydney, Australia. The ADMM-Plus delegation had a site visit on 29th September 2013, visiting the HMAS Albatross in Nowra, New South Wales which is the largest operational Naval establishment and the Royal Australian Navy’s only Air Station.It is also the home to the Fleet Air Arm Museum which the delegation visited during the site visit. The delegation then proceeded to the HMAS Creswell which provides the initial entry training for the Royal Australian Navy officers. During the site visit to HMAS Creswell, a brief tour to the FTX C2 Centre was given. Afterwards, the delegation proceeded to observe boarding demonstrations in Jervis Bay where the 11 ADMM-Plus ships, including Brunei Darussalam’s very own KDB Darulaman, were participatingin the FTX and the upcoming International Fleet Review which is held back-to-back to the Maritime Security EWG Meeting.
The demonstrations observed were of two types: investigative boarding and vertical boarding. The investigative boarding demonstration was carried out jointly by Japan’s JDSMakinamiand Royal Malaysian Navy boarding party whereas the vertical boarding demonstration was executed by New Zealand’s HMNZS TeMana and Royal Australia Navy’s boarding party from their 816 Squadron's Seahawk helicopter. After the demonstrations, the delegation headed back to HMAS Creswellfor the official FTX Welcome Ceremony and Reception. The ceremony also officially unveiled the anticipated ADMM-Plus Maritime Security Community Information Sharing Portal (AMSCIP) that was discussed thoroughly in the past EWG meetings.
The 6th Maritime Security Meetingbegan on the 30th September 2013 until the 1st October 2013. The meeting opened with welcoming remarks from both the co-chairs and a quick Skype call to the Commodore Peter Leavy and Rear Admiral DatoNasaruddin who were the Exercise Directors of the FTX that was kicking off during the meeting. The meeting discussed the transition of the co-chairmanship from Australia and Malaysia to Brunei Darussalam and New Zealand. Further initiatives for the new work plan for 2014-2017 were tabled and discussed so as to keep the positive momentum of the remarkable progress that has been reached so far.
The 7th meeting for the ADMM-Plus EWG on Maritime Security will be held tentatively in Malaysia in January 2014.