BANGKOK: Malaysia is to participate in this year’s Cobra Gold, world’s longest running and largest multinational military exercise in Southeast Asia, which is back to full scale after downsized over the last three years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Co-hosted by the Royal Thai Armed Forces and United States Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM), this year’s exercise is the 42nd iteration with a total of 30 participating countries comprising 7,394 personnel.
The military exercise would be held in Thailand between Feb 27 to March 10.
Defence Attaché at Malaysian Embassy in Thailand Brigadier General Samsul Rizal Musa said a total of 43 Malaysian armed forces personnel including 37 officers would participate in the annual exercise this year.
"This is the sixth time Malaysia participated in Cobra Gold...., it will also be able to boost confidence and understanding among countries involved in Peace Enforcement Operation (PEO) and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations," he told Bernama.
Malaysia was among the seven fully participating countries in this edition Cobra Gold exercise. The others were Thailand, United States, Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, South Korea.
Meanwhile, Chief of Joint Staff Royal Thai Armed Forces General Thitichai Tiantong during a press conference at the Royal Thai Armed Forces Headquarters here today said Cobra Gold this year would be a Light Year format (under two-year cycle of Light Year - Heavy Year alternate arrangement).
Thitichai said Myanmar would not take part in this year’s Cobra Gold exercise due to 'limited seats'. It is the third year in a row that Myanmar would not observe the military exercise.
Meanwhile, United States’s senior defence official and Defence Attaché to Thailand Col Kurt Leffler said the United States would bring more than 6,000 personnel to participate in this year’s exercise, the largest US participation in Cobra gold in a decade.
He said the Cobra Gold exercise provides participating countries the opportunity to practice, rehearse and experiment together against a wide variety of challenges.
"Our effective responses to regional disasters in recent decades- from floods and storms to earthquakes and cave rescue - is the result of millions of personnel hours of training in Cobra Gold.
"To ensure that our partnership continues to be robust in decades to come, we have brought cooperation in the cyber and space domains into the exercise and are experimenting with new operating concepts to prepare for whatever novel threats the future holds," he said.
Despite the tension between US and China, Beijing would be sending its troops to participate in the humanitarian assistance exercise this year. - Bernama
