2019 Cobra Gold Kicks Off in Phitsanulok

PHITSANULOK, Feb 12 (TNA) - 2019 Cobra Gold military drills officially kicked off in Phitsanulok. The 11- day drills involve almost 10,000 soldiers from 29 countries. Thai Chief of the Defence Forces, Gen Pornpipat Benyasri, Charge d' Affaires ad interim of the US Embassy, Peter M Haymond, and LTG Gary J. Volesky, commander of I Corps jointly opened the military drill at the Akathotsarot camp in Thai upper central province of Phitsanulok today. Foreign ambassadors from Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore also attended the opening ceremony. Cobra Gold is the largest annual Asia-Pacific multilateral military exercise, jointly organized by Thailand and the US. The 38th programme this year is aimed at strengthening military ties among participating countries and to improve their capabilities in conducting combined operations during crisis situations. Seven main participating countries are Thailand, the US., Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and Malaysia. China and India attend humanitarian civic assistance projects. Ten countries that join the Multinational Planning Augmentation Team (MPAT) drills are Australia, Canada, France England, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Nepal, the Philippines, the Republic of Fiji and New Zealand. Ten other countries in the Combined Observer Liaison Team (COLT) are Brunei, Laos, Vietnam, Germany, Israel, Pakistan, Switzerland, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Sweden. The drills, which will run until Feb 22 will be held in the third Army Region in Phitsanok and Sukhothai and the upper part of the Gulf of Thailand in Chonburi. The exercises involve 9,981 personnel and the programmes consist of teaching military chiefs of staff on how to plan military training, field training and humanitarian civic assistance. (TNA)