MAF, PLA Hold Joint Military Exercise

DENGKIL (Selangor, Malaysia), Nov 23 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) and the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Tuesday began a five-day military exercise dubbed 'Peace Youyi Exercise' in their bid to improve their capabilities in humanitarian relief operations. About 410 armed forces personnel from both countries gathered at the Paya Indah Wetlands here to enable the two armies to share their expertise and experiences in conducting such an operation, besides developing a set of standard operating procedures. A total of 10 observers from the Royal Thai Armed Forces took part in the joint exercise to assess the objective of the programme, which was officiated by MAF chief Gen Zulkifeli Mohd Zin. In his speech, Zulkifeli said such a military exercise on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) was believed to be able to empower the coordinating tasks and create awareness on HADR. "The Asia Pacific region experienced about 160 disasters last year, resulting in the death of over 16,000 people with losses estimated to reach about US$44.95 billion (RM199 billion) "In most natural disasters, armed forces personnel will be deployed as the first respondents. Hence, this exercise uses HADR as its background," he said. He said the exercise served as a very effective platform for both parties to empower ties and boost their confidence. The joint exercise which was first introduced last year, saw activities such as jungle survival, combat tracking and unarmed combat by MAF, while the PLA demonstrated close quarter shooting and unarmed combat. Also present were Chinese Armed Forces chief Gen Fang Fenghui and China's Ambassador to Malaysia Dr Huang Huikang. -- BERNAMA