KUANTAN - The 10-day Pacific Partnership 2023 exercise held here since Sept 5 has been deemed a success by mission commander Capt Claudine Calouri of the US Navy today.
The goal of the largest annual multinational humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) preparedness mission in the Indo-Pacific is to promote to promote interoperability and multinational cooperation through multiple lines of effort to help build regional resilience and disaster response capabilities, she said.
"We have tailored our projects to meet the needs of each country as per request. For example, our medical team, composed of members from other partner (nations), has held 49 medical events here, including community health engagements, conducted medical symposiums in various medical fields such as physical therapy, dentistry and optometry.
"We also held veterinary symposiums and side-by-side events with more than 150 Malaysian farmers and veterinarians in attendance and over 120 animals treated," she said during her speech at the closing ceremony of the exercise, held onboard USS Pearl Harbor at the New Deep Water Terminal here.
A four-day expert exchange on specialised diving capabilities and techniques to support the response to HADR was also held at the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) Academy, attended by divers from the MMEA, South Korea, the British and US navies as well as the US Coast Guard.
Topics discussed included diving techniques and underwater technologies used to reestablish ports and waterways for risk management in operational diving and emergency procedures for diving casualties, Caluori said.
"We also did repairs on a badly deteriorated water tower at Sekolah Kebangsaan Pandan (in Kuantan), which was absolutely amazing. The engineers (from the Royal Malaysian Engineers Corp, the US NAvy Construction Batallion and the Republic of Korea Navy(ROKN) Construction Batallion) worked in two shifts around the clock on site to get the job done in time," she said, adding that seeing the students' faces pushed them to give their best in that project.
Caluori also praised the hospitality of Malaysians, sharing that participants were warmly welcomed everywhere and she had the opportunity to listen to the Pacific Partnership 2021 Band.
"The food here was also phenomenal. I personally tried so many new foods that I have never eaten before and it was all delicious," she said, but noted that she missed out on sampling the notorious King of Fruits, the durian.
Meanwhile, the Malaysian Joint Forces Command issued a statement here today stating that the annual exercise, in which agencies such as the Pahang-state National Security Council, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), the police, the Fire and Rescue Department, the Civil Defence Force, the MMEA and the People’s Volunteer Corp (Rela), had also participated, in addition to the Malaysian Armed Forces, had successfully concluded without any injury or untoward incidents.
Malaysia first took part in the exercise in 2016 in Kuantan, and was followed by other exercises in Mersing, Johor and Kuching Sarawak.
The exercise is an initiative by the United State Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) that is implemented by the United State Pacific Fleet (USPACFLT) and was first held in 2006 following the tsunami that hit Acheh, Indonesia in 2004. - BERNAMA