"ASEAN itself has had framework procedure standard for disaster management."
Yogyakarta (ANTARA News) - Military personnel from Indonesia and Singapore will cooperate in a disaster management simulation exercise in July this year.

"Such a cooperation of military personnel from the two countries is important in disaster management effort," ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting (ADMM) spokesman Penny Radjendra said on the sidelines of an ASEAN Defense Senior Officials Meeting (ASDOM) here on Wednesday.

According to him, the exercise in July would be in the form of disaster management simulation, especially for earthquake disaster and tsunami.

He said that in the exercise, the military personnel from the two countries would mobilize their military assets in accordance with the capacity of each country.

The disaster mitigation simulation will be conducted in Indonesia and Singapore.

"ASEAN itself has had framework procedure standard for disaster management," he said.

The natural disaster management sector is one of five cooperation concepts in the defense field which is to be matured in the ADSOM and ADSOM Plus meeting in Yogyakarta.

ADSOM is a forum focusing on the defense cooperation among ASEAN nations, according to him.

The discussions in the meeting are directed to implementable defense cooperation and contemporary conditions such as natural disaster handling, he added.

The three-day meeting is also expected to discuss the annual defense programs, and defense cooperation, including in Peacekeeping Center Network, and collaboration in the defense industry.

The ASEAN member countries which have Peacekeeping Centers are Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines and Malaysia.

The two earlier ADSOMs were held in Surabaya (East Java) on February 22-24, and in Jakarta on March 29, 2011. The theme of a series of defense meetings is "Strengthening Defense Cooperation of ASEAN and the Global Community to Face New Challenges."

ASEAN groups Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.
(Uu.O001/HAJM/O001)

Editor: Priyambodo RH
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