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Transcript/ScriptSix ASEAN Members have sent military equipment and troops to train this month at the largest naval exercises in the world, based off the coast of Hawaii. It comes as Manila marks the sixth anniversary of an international court ruling that Beijing illegally claimed territory inside the Philippine waters of the South China Sea.VOA’s Jessica Stone reports from Honolulu.
JESSICA:
As the US-China competition heats up….more Pacific partners are finding each other here at the largest naval exercises in the world based In Honolulu Hawaii.
We went along as the Malaysian army soldiers trained side by side with U.S. Marines in an urban environment here at the Rim of the Pacific naval exercises in Hawaii.
They learn to communicate through hand signals and with the help of an English-speaking commander. Malaysia is one of three nations training here that has a competing claim with China in the South China Sea. The other two — Philippines and Brunei have also sent troops. Indonesia sent a frigate and 129 troops, one marine platoon, and three training control staff to the exercises. The Philippines is debuting one of its 2 new brand-new missile frigate. Some of these soldiers and marines are training together for the first time.
Major Mohamad Fuzral; Malaysian Army:
These kind of joint training give us a lot of opportunity to us since we start to develop our rapid deployment force in terms of previous operations. And Marine task, so we get a lot of experience from especially from USMC and the other nations. So it is a good opportunity for us and we will bring back what we learned from all other participant countries to bring back to our country.
Naval Colonel Lewis N. Nainggolan Commander of KRI Gusti Ngurah Rai-332
Courtesy: Skype
we want to increase our ability to work with other navies in terms of a larger maritime operation. We are working with a lot of nations. We are working with a lot of ships. We have aircraft carriers We have submarines we have amphibious ships. So this will be. Guess for us to test our capabilities and learn from our partners in the exercise,
Jay Benson - Maritime Security Analyst Stable Sea
Courtesy: Skype
They (exercises) build trust, they build understanding and interpersonal relationships between navies and maritime law enforcement agencies, and they allow them to kind of practice how they would collectively respond to any kind of non-traditional maritime security crisis which is which is really critical especially when in a region like Southeast Asia and the broader Indo-Pacific that sees a whole wide spectrum of non-traditional maritime security.
((JESSICA))
Back for a second year are Her Majesty’s Armed Forces, the Royal Tongan Marines, even as the U.S. IndoPacific strategy expands beyond SouthEast Asia to include more and more of the South Pacific.
((JESSICA))
Jessica Stone VOA News Honolulu Hawaii
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