The 15th Meeting for ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus) Experts’ Working Group on Military Medicine (EWG on MM) commenced on Tuesday at The Rizqun International Hotel.
Royal Brunei Armed Forces (RBAF) Chief Medical Officer Colonel (Dr) Haji Awang Mohd Hafizul bin Haji Awang Mohd Hassan, and Director General of Operational Health Joint Health Command of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) Brigadier Isaac Seidl co-chaired the meeting, officiated by Deputy Permanent Secretary (Policy and Strategy) at the Ministry of Defence Haji Adi Ihram bin Dato Paduka Haji Mahmud.
The meeting was physically attended by representatives from ADMM-Plus countries and the ASEAN Centre of Military Medicine (ACMM), while representatives from China, Japan, Malaysia, India, New Zealand, the United States (US) and the ASEAN Secretariat joined the meeting virtually.
A representative from the United Nations (UN) Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) stationed in the Philippines was among the guest speakers. The agenda for the 15th EWG on MM meeting includes a discussion on Health Needs Assessment which will be utilised during the project-based activity known as the Project Community Medical Deployment (PCMD), as well as the use of the ASEAN Logistics Support Framework (LSF).
The project aims to strengthen the ACMM’s role in assisting similar future military medical programmes.
Since 2010, the EWG on MM has strengthened cooperation, interoperability and coordination among the military medical services of the 18 ADMM-Plus countries as envisaged by the ADMM-Plus leaders.
The 15th ADMM-Plus EWG on MM meeting is the first in-person meeting under the fourth cycle of the Experts’ Working Group on Military Medicine for the cycle 2021-2023, where previous meetings were conducted virtually in 2020 and 2021.
The three-day meeting concludes today.
