WASHINGTON - The United States has proposed holding disaster relief exercises with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as a group to help victims of natural disasters in the region.
Christopher R. Hill Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs made the proposal at the ASEAN Regional Forum conference in Manila to enhance ASEAN-US cooperation on the ground.
The proposal calls for the first ever exercise to be held within 18 months between US forces and ARF forces somewhere in the Philippines in a scenario in which amphibious and helicopter rescue teams have to be mobilized to assist a village hit by a tsunami.
“Given the number of natural disasters in the region whether caused by global warming or just plain bad luck we thought it time to see if our forces can work together, can be interoperable in dealing with disaster relief," he said.
ASEAN members are Brunei, Cambodia,
Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand,
Singapore and Vietnam.
The US has had bilateral exercises with
individual ASEAN members before and “that model will continue but it will be
greatly strengthened if we had a multilateral model as well," he said.
“We’ve never done it together as an ARF
force” and this would be the first time ASEAN as a group would be involved in a
exercise, Hill said.
He said much work and planning still had
to be done to make the group exercise involving seven to eight ARF countries a
reality.
These include determining which countries
can provide equipment and logistics, working out disaster scenarios and looking
at early warning systems.
Hill emphasized the US remained engaged
in ASEAN and said the Philippines, Indonesia and to a lesser extent Cambodia
were taking up three-quarters of total US assistance to all of Asia.
He said Myanmar was acting as a drain on
ASEAN’s ability to move forward and develop a stronger infrastructure.
“ASEAN’s consensus-driven decision making
is put to the challenge by a country that doesn’t want to join in its consensus
... that doesn’t want to play by the rules that everyone else plays," he
said on the eve of an ASEAN Regional Forum meeting in Manila.
Hill said Myanmar,
formerly known as Burma,
was known principally as a country with human rights problems.
What is less talked about is Myanmar is a
big country with economic importance because of its raw materials and of
strategic importance to the big powers.
Asked why the Bush administration
proposed cutting military aid to the Philippines for fiscal year 2008,
he said it was difficult to comment on a budget that was still being considered
by Congress.
“There is a tremendous draw on the budget
right now in the Middle East and South West
Asia. So I would not assume the Philippines
is somehow less important in the overall scheme of things," he said.
By Jose Katigbak
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