Da Nang (VNA) – The coast guard forces of Vietnam and Indonesia conducted a joint exercise on search and rescue, firefighting and explosion prevention at sea in the waters off the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau on October 11.
Participating in the joint exercise were officers, soldiers, and crew members from vessel CSB 8001 of Vietnam's Coast Guard Region 3 Command and Indonesia's coast guard ship KN.Pulau Dana-323.
In the hypothetical scenario, the Vietnamese and Indonesian coast guard ships received an SOS signal from a vessel on fire while on a joint patrol. They quickly identified the coordinates, communicated with each other via a common frequency system, and urgently accelerated to the scene to approach the distressed ship. Then they coordinated in using water cannons to extinguish the fire.
After the fire was successfully extinguished, both ships discovered that a person had fallen into the sea. They quickly deployed high-speed rescue boats to approach the victim, brought him onboard and provided first aid to stabilise his health.
Thanks to the close coordination and high determination of the officers and crew members from both forces, the missions were successfully executed, contributing to the excellent completion of the joint exercise.
Col. Nguyen Minh Khanh, Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff of the Coast Guard Region 3 Command, said that this was a meaningful activity for the two forces to exchange and learn from each other in handling incidents related to search and rescue, firefighting, and explosion prevention at sea.
He went on to say that it was also an opportunity for the officers and crews of both countries to gain more experience in ensuring maritime security and safety, responding to incidents at sea, and improving their creativity, practical skills and command capabilities when carrying out assigned tasks./.
