Singapore and Malaysian armies conclude bilateral military exercise

SINGAPORE: The Singapore Army and the Malaysian Army today conclude Exercise Semangat Bersatu ( XSB), which saw the participation of around 750 troopers from the Third Battalion Singapore Guards and the Fifth Royal Malay Regiment.

This year’s bilateral military exercise, the 23rd edition in the series, held in Singapore from Nov 12 to 25, 2017, included professional exchanges and culminated in a combined battalion field exercise.

The Singapore Chief of Army, Major- General Melvyn Ong and the Malaysian Chief of Army, General Tan Sri Zulkiple Kassim co-officiated the closing ceremony of XSB at Lim Chu Kang Training Area, earlier yesterday.

“The Singapore Armed Forces ( SAF) lends heavy emphasis on this exercise as we value the opportunity to interact and to exchange professional military knowledge and expertise, with our friends from the MAF,” Ong said at the closing ceremony.

“The regional security environment that we face today is full of complexities and uncertainity, and that is why we need friends,” he added.

Meanwhile, Zulkiple believed that the most important aspect of the exercise was to foster a closer relationship between armies despite all the challenges that both have to face.

“I am confident that as time goes by, the continuation of this bilateral exercise will bring us closer together as brothers in arms,” he said.

According to Singapore Ministry of Defence (Mindef), XSB was first held in 1989, underscores the warm and long- standing defence relations between Singapore and Malaysia.

It provides a valuable platform for professional interactions and people-to-people interactions.

The SAF and MAF interact regularly across a wide range of activities, which include bilateral exchanges, cross- exchange of courses, as well as multilateral activities under the ambit of the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting and the Five Power Defence Arrangements.

Mindef said on the sidelines of the closing ceremony of XSB, both armies also concluded the Terms of Reference for new Army- toArmy Talks.

From 2018, both armies will hold regular dialogues to exchange views on regional and global security developments as well as look to further enhance defence cooperation. — Bernama