The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) will participate in the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting (ADMM)-Plus Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR)/Military Medicine (MM) Exercise in Brunei from June 17-20, announced the Defence Ministry of Singapore on June 13.

The Singapore Defence Ministry’s news release added that the SAF will be participating with 340 personnel, one Landing Ship Tank (LST), four Super Puma helicopters as well as military medical and combat engineer assets.

The SAF contingent is led by Director Joint Operations Brigadier-General (BG) Ngien Hoon Ping, who said: "The SAF is looking forward to contribute to the exercise in a meaningful way. The exercise will also foster confidence and enhance military-to-military relations across all levels."

The ADMM-Plus HADR/MM Exercise is jointly led by Brunei as the host country of the exercise, Singapore and Japan as the co-chairs of the ADMM-Plus Experts' Working Group on Military Medicine (EWG-MM) and Vietnam and China as the co-chairs of the ADMM-Plus Experts' Working Group on HADR (EWG-HADR).

This exercise will involve approximately 1,800 personnel, seven ships, 18 helicopters, military medical, engineering and search and rescue teams from the ADMM-Plus countries. The ADMM-Plus is made up of 18 countries, namely the ten ASEAN countries as well as Australia, China, Japan, India, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Russia and the United States.

On June 16 in Brunei, the Singaporean military will join counterparts from nine other ASEAN member countries in the 2nd ASEAN Militaries' HADR Exercise (AHX), co-hosted by Singapore and Brunei.

The 2nd AHX aims to promote the familiarisation of national and regional HADR management mechanisms amongst ASEAN militaries through the conduct of professional sharing and a scenario-based table-top exercise.-VNA