PORT DICKSON, MALAYSIA, Tuesday 11 August 2015 – A delegation of 5 officers and 3 other ranks from the Royal Brunei Armed Forces (RBAF), headed by Major (U) Azmie Iskandar bin Ariffin, is participating in the ‘EXERCISE KERIS AMAN CAPSTONE 2015’ which begins today until 24 August 2015 at the Malaysia Peacekeeping Training Centre (MPTC), Army Academy, Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia.
The delegation is supported by the RBAF contingent who is presently attending the Force Integration Training (FIT) program at the MPTC in preparation for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) mission under the command of the Malaysian Battalion 850-3 (UNIFIL MALBATT 850-3). This military exercise is a multinational Peacekeeping Operations (PKO) exercise and hosted by the Malaysian Armed Forces in cooperation with the United States Pacific Command’s (USPACOM) Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI) program.
The exercise intended to train participating countries on PKO skills including enhancing the nation’s capacity to train, plan, prepare, manage and conduct PKO at the tactical level. In addition, to enhance international capacity to effectively conduct United Nations and regional PKO by building partner country capabilities to train and sustain peacekeeping proficiencies; increasing the number of capacity building of Troops Contributing Countries (TCC) from around the world available for deployment; and facilitating the preparation, logistical support, and deployment of military units and TTC to PKO. It is expected a total of 26 nations and over 1,000 service members will be involved for this exercise.
This is the third RBAF’s involvement towards PKO multinational exercise in which the first was conducted in the People's Republic of Bangladesh in 2008, codenamed ‘EXERCISE SHANTI DOOT’ and subsequently, was held in the Republic of Indonesia in 2010, codenamed ‘EXERCISE GARUDA SHIELD’.
Brunei Darussalam has undertaken an active and participative role in the United Nations PKOs since 1992 for the United Nation Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) and remains committed to United Nations PKO specifically for the UNIFIL mission since 2008 and taking part in the International Monitoring Team (IMT), in Mindanao, Republic of Philippines. RBAF’s participation in this exercise is consistent with the efforts to be flexible in a variety of security tasks and to be interoperable with regional and international security partners as stipulated in the Brunei Defence White Paper Update 2007.