Commander of the Royal Brunei Armed Forces (RBAF) Major General (U) Dato Seri Pahlawan Haji Hamzah bin Haji Sahat received COVID-19 laboratory equipment from the Australian Government’s Department of Defence through Australian High Commissioner to Brunei Darussalam Tiffany McDonald at an official handover ceremony at Bolkiah Garrison Medical Complex yesterday.
The high commissioner acknowledged Brunei Darussalam’s efforts in managing COVID-19 and recognised RBAF’s role in the whole-of-nation response to the Sultanate’s COVID-19 testing framework. Highlighting the working visit to RBAF’s COVID-19 temporary laboratory facilities early last month, McDonald expressed hope that the new equipment will assist in establishing a permanent laboratory at Bolkiah Garrison Medical Complex.
Major General (U) Dato Seri Pahlawan Haji Hamzah expressed his appreciation and welcomed more bilateral engagements between the two countries’ military medical communities through the upcoming ADMM-Plus Experts’ Working Group on Military Medicine that Australia and Brunei Darussalam will co-chair in 2020-2023 and the virtual ASEAN Military Medicine Conference in May 2021 featuring topics on ‘Pandemic Preparedness’. The RBAF Commander also hoped the efforts will create more opportunities for exchanges and collaborative research in military medicine.
RBAF Chief of Staff Colonel (U) Abdul Rahman bin Haji Durahman, Director of Intelligence at the Ministry of Defence (MinDef) Colonel (U) Haji Mohd Muluddin bin Haji Latif, Director of Logistics at the MinDef Lieutenant Colonel Haji Abdul Kadir bin Haji Mahmud, RBAF Chief Medical Officer Colonel Dr Haji Awang Mohd Hafizul bin Haji Awang Hassan and Australian High Commission Defence Adviser Lieutenant Colonel Dan Hauser were also present.
