PA hosts military meeting with Aussie counterparts

From the Philippine News Agency (Apr 9): PA hosts military meeting with Aussie counterparts

In line with efforts to increase its military cooperation with its neighbors, the Philippine Army (PA) formally hosted the "1st Quarter CY 2015 Philippines-Australia Defense Cooperation Program Conference" at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati City Wednesday.

The conference aims to discuss updates on the training bids for calendar year 2015-2016 and other training related concerns and issues.

It also seeks to determine and assess the trainings and exercises to be conducted for the year 2015 and 2016.

Noticeably, the most robust area of defense cooperation between the Philippines and Australia is in the education and training.

Through the memorandum of understanding between the two countries, Australia has become the major source of training and education of Army personnel and defense officials.

The Philippines and Australia also regularly conduct the "RP-Australia Exercise DAWN CARACHA" and "RP-Australia Exercise DUSK CARACHA," both are bilateral exercises which intend to enhance interoperability between the Special Forces of both countries and facilitate the conduct of combined operations.

It can be recalled that one of the major command thrusts of Army chief Lt. Gen. Hernando DCA Iriberri is to sustain international engagement and peace support operations.

With this, the PA continues to engage in training activities and exercises with foreign counterparts to further enhance international defense cooperation and strengthen bilateral relations.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=751696