VIETNAM, Friday 17 January 2014 - The 3rd ASEAN Defence Ministerial Meeting-Plus Expert Working Group (ADMM-Plus EWG) meeting on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) commenced on 17 January 2014 in Nha Trang, Socialist Republic of Viet Nam.
The meeting was co-chaired by Senior Colonel Do Mai Khanh, Deputy Director of the IDIR, Ministry of National Defence, Viet Nam, and Senior Colonel Zhao Bao, Deputy Director-General, General Planning Bureau, Foreign Affairs Office, Ministry of National Defence, People’s Republic of China.
The meeting was attended by ADMM-Plus countries as well as representatives from the ASEAN Secretariat; including Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand, United States of America and Vietnam.
The meeting served as a final wrap up of the first cycle of the three-year term of the EWG HADR. The chairs remarked on the success of the HADR and Military Medicine (HADR&MM) Exercise that was held in Brunei Darussalam and thanked all participating countries for their contributions.Lieutenant General Vo Van Tuan, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Viet Nam People's Army, as the guest of honour, stressed that cooperation,sharing information and mobilising resources between member countries might contribute to preventing severe consequences of natural disasters and climate change.
Brunei Darussalam’s Head of Delegation, Lt Col Mohd Shanonnizam Sulaiman, Head Secretariat of ADMM-Plus HADR & MM Exercise, 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. This was followed by other countries' presentation on experiences gained from their own HADR Operations such as during the typhoon Haiyan disaster in the Philippines.
The meeting concluded with a handover ceremony whereby co-chairmanship was handed over from Viet Nam and China to Laos and Japan. Prior to the handover, Laos and Japan presented their new three-year work plan, which provided an outline to bring forward the achievements and successes of the previous cycle.