Navies from 12 Countries to Hold Joint Exercise

07 Mei 2019

Warships from participating ADMM-Plus countries docked in Busan, ROK. The Maritime Security FTX will see participation from a total of 19 ships, 10 aircraft and about 700 personnel from the 18 ADMM-Plus countries (photo : Sing Mindef)

Twelve countries will join a naval exercise off Busan from Monday to Thursday to counter maritime crimes, the Navy said Sunday.

It said the four-day exercise was the first of a two-part exercise involving 18 members of the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus), a defense dialogue involving ASEAN and other Asia-Pacific countries.

The second part of the exercise will take place from May 9 to 13 off Singapore.

The 12 countries participating this week are South Korea, the United States, China, Japan, Australia, India, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

They will send a combined 16 warships and six aircraft.

The remaining six ADMM-Plus members — Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, New Zealand and Russia — will join as observers.

For this week's exercise, South Korea will operate the 4,400-ton destroyer Wang Geon, the 2,500-ton frigate Jeonbuk, the 4,900-ton landing ship Cheonjabong, two UH-60 helicopters and one Lynx helicopter. The Wang Geon will also take part in the second part of the drills.

Led by the South Korean Navy, the first part of the exercise will focus on rescuing ships hijacked by armed groups.

The Singaporean Navy will lead the second part of the exercise aimed at stopping and searching ships suspected of carrying banned items.

Some military sources speculated that the Singapore drill was mainly targeting North Korea amid suspicions that it has been engaged in ship-to-ship transfers of crude oil and other items banned by the United Nations.

From 2017 to 2020, South Korea and Singapore are serving as co-chairs of the maritime security expert working group of the ADMM-Plus.

The ADMM-Plus was launched in 2010. It had meetings in 2010, 2013, 2016, 2017 and 2018.

(Korea Times)