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The SEACAT exercise is currently being conducted in Singapore. In fact, Beijing and Moscow are also conducting exercises in Ningxia, China.
The US-led Southeast Asian Cooperation and Training (SEACAT) military exercises are being conducted in Singapore and online.
Now in its 20th year, the annual exercise begins on Tuesday and involves the navies of 21 countries.
They include Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, Canada, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Maldives, New Zealand, Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, East Timor, United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam.
The US Navy’s 7th Fleet stated in a statement that this year’s exercise included 10 ships and more than 400 personnel. The exercise aims to encourage countries to use maritime forces to strengthen their “understanding of the combat environment, build capabilities for humanitarian support missions, and uphold international laws and norms,” ​​it said.
The SEACAT exercise is going on because China and Russia are also going bear China and the United States are holding joint military exercises in the north-central region of Ningxia. The exercises to be conducted with South Korea have increased tensions with Pyongyang.
During the SEACAT exercise, a combat post of the Singapore International Convergence Center will serve as a centralized hub for crisis coordination and information sharing, as participating navies will track merchant ships that “simulate ships of suspicious interest throughout Southeast Asia.” The statement said.
The South China Sea is almost entirely claimed by China and Southeast Asian countries including the Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia. It is one of the busiest waterways in the world and has increasingly become the focus of maritime interests.
“These scenarios are designed to encourage countries to cooperate through maritime domain awareness assets to better understand combat operations and comply with international norms,” ​​said Tom Ogden, commander of US Destroyer Squadron 7. Our Southeast Asian partners are ready for possible real-world participation in the future. “
SEACAT started in 2002 with “Southeast Asia Anti-Terrorism Cooperation”.
These exercises were initiated after the attacks in the United States in September 2001 and were renamed in 2012. They focused on advancing the training of navies and coast guards in South and Southeast Asia to deal with challenges including piracy and smuggling.
Some international and non-governmental organizations also participated in the exercise this year.
They include the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the EU Critical Maritime Route in the Great Indian Ocean (CRIMARIO) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
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