Friday, June 10 2022

Defense Asia | Security | Oceania | South East Asia

The holding of the consultations highlighted some of the avenues of collaboration that the two parties are pursuing on security matters.

Last week, Australia and Brunei held another iteration of their joint defense working committee meeting. The engagement highlighted the continued efforts of both parties to continue to develop the defense aspect of their relationship.

As I have noted earlier in these pages, Australia and Brunei have a longstanding advocacy relationship as part of their broader bilateral relationship dating back to when Brunei gained full independence from the Great Britain in 1984. Defense cooperation was formalized by a Memorandum of Understanding on Defense Cooperation signed in 1999, and covers various areas such as visits, exchanges, training, exercises and the exchange of information involving key services.

Among the defense interactions between the two parties set up following the signing of the Defense Memorandum of Understanding is the meeting of the Joint Defense Working Committee (JDWC). The JDWC is meant to provide both sides with an opportunity to strengthen their defense relationship and discuss security aspects of collaboration.

Last week, the two parties hosted another iteration of their JDWC. The 17th JDWC meeting between Brunei and Australia was held at HMAS Moreton in Brisbane, Australia, and was co-chaired by Ximena Morrisby, Acting Assistant Secretary for South East Asia in the Division of International Policy at the Australian Ministry of Defence, and Haji Adi Ihram bin Dato Paduka Haji Mahmud, Director of Defense Policy at the Brunei Ministry of Defence.

As in previous iterations, during the JDWC, the two sides took the opportunity to discuss regional security issues of mutual concern as well as issues related to the bilateral defense relationship. The official Brunei Ministry of Defense (MINDEF) minutes provided few details, but said the countries had discussed issues such as “regional security dynamics” and the “framework for their bilateral defense engagement.” “. They also discussed shared multilateral commitments, with an example under the ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) process where Brunei and Australia will become co-chairs of the ASEAN Defense Ministerial Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) process. ADMM-Plus experts on military medicine for the next cycle 2020-2023.

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Besides the JDWC talks themselves, the two sides also had other commitments. For example, as part of the JDWC programme, the Brunei delegation traveled to Gallipoli Barracks to witness Exercise Mallee Bull, a bilateral exercise conducted between the Royal Brunei Land Force and the Australian Army and interact with the staff involved. The delegation also visited the ANZAC Memorial Square for a wreath laying session and paid tribute to the lives lost during the Second World War.

Admittedly, the JDWC is just one of many defence-related engagements between Australia and Brunei. Nonetheless, how both parties seek to operationalize some of the identified priority strategic areas as well as the mentioned avenues of collaboration will continue to be a point of attention for the remainder of 2019 and into 2020.

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