June 29, 2012 defpro.com
Nearly 40 representatives from 13 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as well as China, Japan and the ROK gathered at the Shijiazhuang Army Command College of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and carried out pragmatic and in-depth exchanges and discussions centering on the theme of “earthquake relief emergency actions of the ASEAN, China, Japan and the ROK armed forces” on June 25 and 26, 2012.
Different from the previous two Non-traditional Security Forum of the ASEAN and China-Japan-ROK (10+3) Armed Forces, this forum for the first time introduces the desktop-deducing participated by all sides. With international earthquake relief actions of armed forces as the drill background and joint earthquake relief actions of rescue teams from various countries as the theme, the drill fully demonstrates such contents as implementation procedures, methods and means during the emergency response phase as well as coordination and cooperation among international relief forces.
The forum also introduced three cases, namely, China’s Wenchuan earthquake relief work, Japan’s Fukushima earthquake relief work and Indonesia’s earthquake relief desktop-deducing. All the participating representatives agreed that the role of armed forces is indispensable and irreplaceable in the relief work against some major disasters, and the emergency response and disaster relief capabilities of the armed forces of various countries can be improved through international pragmatic cooperation and drills.
It was universally accepted among the participating representatives that the forces of a country alone could not meet the relief needs in the face of major natural disasters and only with the aid of the international community could security and stability be maintained and common interests be ensured.
“The forum has become an institutionalized defense cooperation project under the framework of ‘10+3’, and its influence is gradually expanding.” said Guo Xinyuan, director of the Training Department of the Shijiazhuang Army Command College of the PLA. (PLA Daily)
