| James Kon |
UNITED States (US) Rear Admiral Murray Joe Tynch III, Commander of the Logistics Group Western Pacific, Task Force 73, Singapore Area Coordinator has underscored the importance of Southeast Asia Cooperation and Training (SEACAT) exercise with Brunei Darussalam and other participating nations.
During a teleconference with media representatives in the region on Thursday, he also expressed satisfaction with Brunei’s progress and its execution of SEACAT.
The 17th annual SEACAT exercise started on August 27 in Singapore with nine countries participating including Brunei Darussalam.
Tynch said, “I’m very proud of the work Brunei has done leading up to the execution of SEACAT. Rules-based order and maritime domain awareness are cornerstones of the security, stability and prosperity which we are all working to achieve. Regardless of size, SEACAT participants bring their best effort. In return, we all benefit from the skills, the information sharing and the relationship building.”
When asked how the SEACAT exercise helps participating nations combat transnational crimes, he said, “Through information sharing and better maritime domain awareness, we are improving all participants’ ability to see and sense what is happening. Rules-based order provides a common understanding of what right behaviour looks like. Ultimately, as partners work together there are fewer weak points for criminals to exploit.”
This year’s exercise focusses on increasing maritime domain awareness through collaborative and coordinated sharing of information towards ensuring a common understanding of what is going on in the maritime environment and how best to operate as an effective unified maritime force.
SEACAT brings sailors and coast guardsmen from Bangladesh, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, US, Thailand and Vietnam together in a series of tailored seminars including a comprehensive Visit, Board, Search and Seizure (VBSS) workshop in Manila, the Philippines led by the US Coast Guard.
The sea phase will include 15 boarding operations by multiple nations across three vessels designed to provide training opportunities in real-world at-sea environments. This year the exercise will incorporate increasingly complex maritime interdiction scenarios to emphasise “real-world, real-time” practice.
Scenarios will involve sharing information from all available sources including Singapore’s Information Fusion Centre (IFC) and Maritime Operations Centres (MOC) in Brunei, the Philippines and Thailand.
Based on the situation, ships and aircrafts from participating navies and coast guards including the US Navy’s P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft will investigate and conduct at-sea boardings as necessary.
Participants will also utilise the Combined Enterprise Regional Information Exchange System (CENTRIXS) to communicate and share information through secure channels.
A global multinational information sharing initiative, CENTRIXS enables partner nations to communicate in real-time during complex exercises such as SEACAT.
SEACAT, which began in 2002 under the name ‘Southeast Asia Cooperation Against Terrorism’, was renamed in 2012 to expand the scope of training among regional navies and coast guards.
Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security at the US State Department Andrea L Thompson in her remark at the teleconference reiterated that the American administration continues to actively engage with the Indo-Pacific region.
The US President last year visited Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam, and the Philippines. This year he was in Singapore for the Summit with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
During her recent trip, Thompson continued important conversations underscoring US’ commitment to deepening partnership with Indonesia and Vietnam as well as further expanding its longstanding alliance with Australia.
“The partnership not only promotes a free and open Indo-Pacific alliance but also allows us to work together more effectively to tackle some shared global security challenges,” she added.
Thompson highlighted that the SEACAT is important from a military perspective, adding, “Exercises such as this are critical to achieving our US foreign policy goals and they strengthen our relationships with our partners in the Indo-Pacific region. It also enables our partners to achieve their security goals.”
The State and Defence departments have collaborated on a number of security initiatives at SEACAT because defence and diplomacy are both key to national security, she added.
Meanwhile, Tynch said that the nature of the exercise reflects the nature of these relationships the partners have built as they evolved and grew stronger.
He stated, “As SEACAT began, it was focussed on counterterrorism. But over time, it has evolved and right now we’ve broadened the scope for cooperation and training as the main objectives. That’s what the vision of the exercise is.”
On the information-sharing front, he said, “The four maritime operation centres participating this year are in Singapore, the Philippines, Brunei and a new one in Thailand.”
“They’ll all be working on CENTRIXS as we continue to gain a common operability among our computer systems,” he added.