Asean military meet focuses on virus cooperation

The Asean Centre of Military Medicine (ACMM) discussed cooperation in the eradication of Covid-19 in the region and the prevention of a second wave of the outbreak in a video conference yesterday.

The ACMM said the virtual meeting was attended by military representatives of the 10 Asean member states and the United States, New Zealand, India, Japan, China, Russia, South Korea and Australia. Non-military parties also attended the conference, it said.

Maj Gen Pramote Imwathana, commander of the Thai Army Medical Department, said the meeting followed the Asean Defence Ministers’ MeetingPlus (ADMM-Plus) in February.

Maj Gen Pramote, who is also the ACMM secretary-general, said yesterday’s meeting was held to share experiences on how countries are waging war against the pandemic and review the lessons learned.

He said the sharing of information marked the beginning of transboundary cooperation which will help in stemming the outbreak, before adding no country can succeed in the fight against the virus alone.

“That won’t solve the problem,” he said. “We need to stamp out Covid-19 from the region.”

He said each Asean country had crisis alleviation programmes that were executed with support from the armed forces.

In Thailand, many containment measures were implemented through multi-party efforts led by public health volunteers, Maj Gen Pramote said, noting civilian-military cooperation was carried out to screen for the virus among overseas returnees.

He said the Defence Ministry has organised some state quarantine facilities.

Maj Gen Pramote said participants discussed preparations for a second wave of the Covid-19 outbreak, adding they were told to find a balance between relaxing lockdown measures and preventing a resurgence.