Military officers from the navies, air forces, coastguards, border guards and defence ministries of Southeast Asian countries completed an international training course in Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) Protection on May 13.

The five-day course, conducted by the United Kingdom ’s Ministry of Defence in Da Nang, drew the participation of 25 military officers from Indonesia , Malaysia , Brunei, Thailand , the Philippines and Viet Nam.

International maritime organisations and legislation, physical maritime threats and how to counter them, fishery protection and the global maritime distress and safety system, as well as search and rescue operations and the agencies that conduct them, environmental issues and disaster management were discussed during the programme.

Lieutenant Commander Ted Bath from the Royal Navy’s Maritime Warfare School , who was delivering the course, said: “It is a tremendous privilege to welcome so many high calibre officers from five regional nations’ military forces to such a great venue in Viet Nam to enhance their understanding of the issues involved in EEZ management and protection operations.”

Participants at the training course in Da Nang. (Source: the training course’s organising committee)

This is the first time that the UK military personnel have delivered training in Viet Nam, marking a significant step forward in the two nations’ training co-operation.

The UK aims to run similar, more practical and focussed training with the Vietnamese People’s Navy in the near future and share experience with Viet Nam’s Ministry of National Defence by facilitating bilateral workshops.

The UK ’s defence attaché to Viet Nam, Group Captain Tim Below, said: “I look forward to continuing to deepen the defence relationship between our two countries through further opportunities to share experience in other areas of operations in the months ahead.”

"We need assistance to build a peacekeeping training centre in Viet Nam as part of preparation for deploying troops, personnel training, anti-mining and medical services."

(Source: VNA)