Speech by Permanent Secretary for Defence Chiang Chie Foo, at the Inaugural Experts' Working Group on Military Medicine Meeting

Delegates of this Experts' Working Group on Military Medicine, welcome to Singapore and good morning to all of you.

It is with great pleasure that I have this opportunity to officiate at this inaugural meeting of the Experts' Working Group on Military Medicine (EWG-MM). Singapore is honoured to co-chair this EWG-MM with Japan. I am pleased to note that the two co-chairmen, COL Satoshi Suzuki and BG Benjamin Seet, and their staff have consulted quite widely among the other 16 countries and put together a very fruitful agenda for cooperation among the Military Medical Services of the ADMM-Plus countries, not just for today but also for the next three years as well. If you look at the evolution of ADMM-Plus, since 2006, ASEAN has recognised the importance of being outward-looking and in engaging extra-regional partners and countries that have a stake in the region.

Threats like piracy, natural disasters and trans-national terrorism confront us all with these challenges, and these are challenges which no one country can muster the resources, expertise and bandwidth to deal with effectively on their own and therefore countries need to come together to find creative solutions in areas of shared interests, and build mutual trust and confidence, so as to build regional capacity to deal with these challenges better. For these reasons, ASEAN has been working very hard to evolve the ADMM-Plus. The idea of an ADMM-Plus actually was mooted by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, when he was the Malaysian Defence Minister who hosted the inaugural ADMM meeting held in Malaysia in 2006.

Since then, the ADMM-Plus has been a key issue on the minds of the ASEAN Defence Ministers and the Defence Ministers have invested great effort to evolving the ADMM-Plus from concept to reality based on two key thrusts. First, it provides a much needed platform for the Defence Ministers to have a strategic conversation on regional defence and security issues. Second, it provides an avenue for the defence establishments in the region to find ways to engender practical cooperation in a tangible manner, and this is done through the EWGs.

The inaugural ADMM-Plus meeting held in Hanoi last October was a key milestone, not just in the short history of the ADMM but also in the history of ASEAN. The ADMM-Plus was able to bring together for the first time the Defence Ministers of ten ASEAN and eight "Plus" countries. It was quite a phenomenal feat.

The Defence Ministers all reaffirmed their commitment to enhancing practical cooperation among the 18 defence establishments in five key areas and these are HADR, maritime security, counter-terrorism, peacekeeping operations and of course, military medicine. The Ministers gave direction for Experts' Working Groups (EWGs) to be established in these areas. The good Ministerial attendance, substantive discussions and clear decisions taken at the inaugural ADMM-Plus meeting signaled to the world the strong support for the ADMM-Plus, and the desire for the 18 countries to come together, find areas of shared interests where we can forge practical cooperation.

But as much as the ADMM-Plus was a historical milestone, we must also recognize that the defence establishments of the ADMM-Plus are not starting from scratch. We are building on a long history and an extensive web of existing bilateral and multilateral cooperation. Over many years, the militaries in the region have built up strong cooperative relationships, nurtured by the numerous interactions and joint operations that we have undertaken with one another. These have enhanced familiarity and allowed the defence establishments to form working relationships that have served us well. During the aftermath of the Boxing Day Tsunami in 2004, many of our militaries worked side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder in the relief efforts.

Barely six months after the inaugural ADMM-Plus Defence Ministers' Meeting, the senior defence officials met at the ADSOM-Plus meeting in Yogyakarta in April this year, a couple of months back, to follow-up on the Ministers' directions. The ADSOM-Plus set up the five EWGs formally, approved their respective work programme, work group and basically made arrangements to start their operations and discussions. The ADSOM-Plus officials noted that the EWGs form an integral part of the ADMM-Plus, and their key aim is to enhance practical cooperation in a concrete and tangible manner. The militaries are well placed to do just that, having common professional experiences, and armed with an action-oriented outlook and strong cooperative instincts.

We believe that the EWGs will all make good progress, perhaps some faster than others. Some EWGs, like the EWG on HADR and maritime security are building on the good foundation established by other forums and the familiarity among their experts. Others, like this EWG on military medicine, will be bringing the members together to foster multilateral cooperation maybe for the first time. At the same time, there is also room for the various EWGs to find opportunities to work together, and bring the powerful experiences and expertise of their respective members to bear. For instance, the ADSOM-Plus had noted that there may be economies of scale in having the EWG-HADR and the EWG-MM come together in a live exercise not now but perhaps later in 2013, and that the EWG-MM would be giving this some consideration.

The EWG-MM is a timely development. Today, more so than ever, the Military Medical Services play an important role. Its contributions to sustaining the health and physical well-being of our militaries cannot be overstated. It is also an essential component of our national medical resource, called upon at times to augment national efforts in response to public health threats. This role is increasingly visible as the region confronts emerging infectious diseases and we have seen the region affected by SARS, avian influenza and the H1N1 pandemic.

There is also a growing international dimension to the work of the Military Medical Services in the last couple of years, in contributing towards disaster response and recovery and in humanitarian missions as part of the militaries' peace support operations. It can provide the much needed speedy relief to victims of a natural disaster Given the high tempo at which the Military Medical Services is required to work with each other and interoperate in real-time, there is a need for us to find means to enhance this coordination and cooperation, and develop a common understanding on the issues and challenges we face. We are fortunate that the Military Medical Services are well positioned to do so.

In many ways, the Military Medical Services embody the cooperative ethos of the military. There is a strong culture of knowledge-sharing as doctors are always publishing their latest discoveries and presenting them at scientific conferences, and they often work together as teams in multi-national set-up across the globe.

In recent years, we have seen a growing momentum towards multilateral cooperation in military medicine. In our region, there is the Pan-Asia Pacific Regional Working Group (PAPRWG) of the International Committee of Military Medicine held in Beijing in October 2010, and at the ASEAN level, the ASEAN Chiefs of Military Medicine Meeting (ACMMM) held in Vietnam in May 2011. Within this context, the EWG-MM is an important addition. It provides the platform for the Military Medical Services of the 18 countries to network, and build up strong working relations through professional exchanges, info-sharing and exercises.

The EWG-MM must aim to strengthen training and enhance coordination, interoperability and mutual support among the 18 Military Medical Services in the field. In doing so, we hope to foster long-term partnerships that will facilitate deeper collaboration when needed. For a start, the EWG-MM will focus on the area of medical support in HADR operations, because it is an area that militaries could play a significant role in, and which many countries represented in this room are familiar with.

The EWG-MM will take a step-by-step approach by starting with workshops and seminars, such as this two-day workshop, before moving on to more operationally challenging initiatives, such as the Table Top Exercise (TTX) in 2012, and joint training and a live-exercise planned for and to be discussed in 2013. The build-up in tempo and complexity in the activities over the years will allow our Military Medical Services to develop a good understanding of each others' medical doctrines and operating procedures.

Singapore is committed to working closely with Japan on the EWG-MM, and through this, we aim to chalk up our little contribution to the overall success of the ADMM Plus. And I know we can count on all of you to extend us your strong support and your active participation in the three years ahead.

More Resources

Singapore and Japan Co-Chair the Inaugural Experts' Working Group On Military Medicine Meeting