The ASEAN Regional Forum Disaster Relief Exercise (ARF DiREx) in Manado, North Sulawesi

New Zealand Delegation, Lieutenant Daniel Eder, Major Mike Owen, Col Tony Hill, Defence Attaché, Peter Nunan Second Secretary and Consul, Major Stuart Brown

Over the period 14 to 19 March, Col Tony Hill, Defence Attaché, and Peter Nunan, Second Secretary and Consul, from the Embassy attended the ASEAN Regional Forum Disaster relief exercise (ARF DiREx) in Manado North Sulawesi.

New Zealand also sent three specialists from the NZDF: Majors Brown, Owen and Lieutenant Eder. Of particular relevance was that all were experienced in various levels of disaster relief and had recent experience in dealing with the Christchurch Earthquake.

The ARF Direx was co hosted by Indonesia and Japan, and there were both table top and field exercises. The objectives of the ARF DiREx were as follows:

• To identify effective disaster relief coordination mechanisms among ARF members;
• To improve civil-military coordination at an operational level (mobilisation processes, arrival, exit and so forth) among ARF Participants in the context of disaster relief;
• To identify the role of regional organisations such as ASEAN, ARF and International Organisations such as UNOCHA in civil-military coordination mechanisms; and
• To test and provide inputs to relevant ARF documents such as the ARF General Guidelines for Disaster Relief and the ARF Strategic Guidance for Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief.

The All of Government team was part of the 4000 participants and multinational commitment to the activity (23 nations including the EU and various ASEAN and UN agencies).