Asia Pacific Defense Forum Spring 2001

Asia-Pacific Area Network (APAN) log-in page.

Enhanced Regional Cooperation Initiatives to Date

Despite its relative youth, enhanced regional cooperation has inspired a wide range of seminars, symposiums, workshops, small-scale exercises and has inspired the creation of a new USCINCPAC exercise series designed to promote multilateral cooperation, TEAM CHALLENGE. Recognizing that any meaningful interaction on pressing security concerns must be based upon trust and confidence, USCINCPAC has developed several initiatives to promote information sharing and build the necessary person-to-person relationships. For example, the USCINCPAC-sponsored Military Operations and Law Conference promotes productive discussion of legal issues affecting military operations in the 21st century. Such issues include the importance of advancing the rule of law in military operations and the involvement of the international military legal community in the negotiation of international agreements that affect military operations.

The Asia-Pacific Area Network (APAN), located at www.apan-info.net, was created to enable ongoing dialogue and electronic information sharing to facilitate regional understanding, promote confidence among Asia Pacific neighbors and enhance multilateral cooperation on security issues. With subscribers in 27 nations, APAN has many tools available for its users, including daily Asia-Pacific news items, Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief (HA/DR) related primers, country-specific web sites and maps, and links to major global and regional web sites. APAN also has a "Top Topics" section (suggested by a Royal Thai commander who wanted to see a collection of sources on complicated topics), a plans and exercise section that can be expanded to any multinational military or emergency management exercise, a conference section with a data base for basic conference information, and a separate listing for military-related conferences (most linked to an active web page). Finally, APAN allows conference participants to register online for conferences and get updated news. APAN is one of several technical components that sustain the human dialogue and interaction necessary for enhanced regional cooperation.

As nations progress beyond the confidence building stage, it is a natural evolution of enhanced regional cooperation to develop capabilities that contribute to regional capabilities for HA/DR, Search and Rescue (SAR), and the combating of transnational threats. Enhanced regional cooperation may also provide a framework for the employment of armed forces in small-scale contingencies to which UN members can agree. A secure and peaceful Asia-Pacific region built upon shared dependable expectations of peaceful problem solving through practical multilateral cooperation on common challenges (rather than multilateral security treaties) is the raison d’être for enhanced regional cooperation.

Recognizing that forces must develop standardized tactics, techniques and procedures at the small unit level prior to exercising on a larger scale, enhanced regional cooperation relies upon multilateral training events such as the Multi-Platoon Training Exercise (MPTE) hosted by the Royal Nepalese Army in January, 2000. Conducted at the Royal Nepalese Army’s Peacekeeping Training Centre at Panchkhal, platoon-size units from the armies of Bangladesh, Nepal, and the U.S. Army’s 25th Infantry Division (Light) from Hawaii joined a unit from the Sri Lanka Army to hone standardized peacekeeping skills for UN-sanctioned Peacekeeping Operations (PKO). Military personnel from 18 other nations and UN peacekeeping officials observed the exercise.

Col. Ronnie Tay, Fleet Commander, Republic of Singapore Navy, exits the U.S. Navy Submarine Rescue Chamber following a dive to the Republic of Singapore submarine RSS Conqueror during Exercise Pacific Reach 2000.

During the exercise, participants practiced a variety of capabilities, broken down into 32 peacekeeping tasks, ranging from basic military tasks such as convoy protection to civil-military tasks such as protecting ballot boxes and reacting to civil disturbances. Training conducted during MPTE and other similar exercises directly contributes to enhanced regional cooperation by ensuring the development of multilateral interoperability for functional capabilities including SAR, HA/DR, PKO and anti-piracy.

The flags of Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the United States, and the UN are raised at the Multinational Peacekeeping Training exercise held in Nepal in January 2000.