SINGAPORE – A maritime field training exercise involving the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) and China will be held in China in October.

The field exercise follows from a two-day table-top exercise that was held in Singapore on Thursday (Aug 2) and Friday.

Both exercises are part of the first Asean-China Maritime Exercise that was agreed during the Asean Defence Ministers' Meeting Retreat held in February this year.

The table-top exercise, which was held at the Republic of Singapore Navy’s Multinational Operations and Exercises Centre at Changi Naval Base, involved more than 40 personnel from the 10 Asean member states and China, and covered responses to maritime safety incidents in international waters, like when an oil tanker catches fire.

During the exercise, the participants ran computer simulations of different scenarios - such as search and rescue and medical evacuations - and planned their responses accordingly. 

It also covered the type of assistance the navies can provide to merchant vessels and civilian ships during such scenarios.

The Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (Cues) was also used in their plans for approaching distressed vessels and helicopter cross-deck landings, said the Ministry of Defence (Mindef) in a press release issued on Friday.

Cues, an agreement reached in 2014 to reduce incidents at sea, was adopted by the 18 countries at the Asean Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus last year.

The plans developed during the table-top exercise will be put into practice at the subsequent field training exercise in October. All 11 countries indicated that they will be attending the field training exercise.

Colonel Lim Yu Chuan, the commanding officer of RSN’s 185 Squadron and exercise co-director, said the table-top exercise was a good first step for the navies from Asean and China to work together to deal with maritime incidents.

He added: “We have achieved enhanced understanding of each other’s navy operations (and) we are now able to better work together in response to maritime incidents at sea.”

Asked if the planned responses will be applicable to maritime incidents along the South China Sea, Col Lim said it is the navy’s responsibility to provide assistance to any distressed vessel at sea regardless of the location.

“I’m confident, that should this happen anywhere in the world, we should be able to work together and cooperate well to respond to maritime incidents,” he added.

Co-director of the exercise, Captain Liang Zhijia from the Naval Forces of People’s Liberation Army Southern Theater Command said the Asean-China Maritime Exercise enhances the level of cooperation in defence and security between Asean and China.

“For China, the exercise is a pragmatic measure to practice President Xi’s principles of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness in conducting neighbourhood diplomacy as well as to build a community of shared interests and common destiny with Asean,” he added.

The navy chiefs from Asean and senior officials from the People’s Liberty Army had visited the participants at the table-top exercise on Friday. The Asean navy chiefs are attending the 12th Asean Navy Chiefs’ Meeting on Saturday.