Indonesian Navy To Hold Joint Disaster Relief Exercise

Jakarta, Nov 13 (Antara) - The Indonesian Navy will hold a joint Multilateral Naval Exercise Komodo 2014 on disaster relief, in which 18 countries from ASEAN and outside ASEAN will participate in April next year. "All but Laos have confirmed their participation by including their warships in the exercise," the Navy Chief of Staff Admiral Marsetio said after inaugurating the Mid Planning Conference (MPC) Multilateral Naval Exercise Komodo 2014 here on Wednesday. According to him, the Mid Planning Conference will see participation from naval representatives from 10 ASEAN countries and 8 countries outside ASEAN, and will last for two days on November 13 and 14. Marsetio added that the conference will not be a non-war fight exercise, but will focus on humanitarian and natural disaster mitigation. "Laos will not join the exercise but will send its delegation," he said, adding that the presence of countries in the region that want to participate in the joint exercise was expected to contribute to regional security. He noted that there were three stages of the exercise, namely the Initial Planning Conference (IPC) which was held last August, the ongoing Mid Planning Conference, and the checking of the readiness of delegations, their warships and logistics in January 2014. "Held every two years, the exercise is expected to become a good concept for holding joint exercises in the region," he said, adding that around 4,300 personnel and hundreds of supporting personnel from related institutions would participate in the exercise.