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PASAY CITY, Philippines – The Philippines, U.S. and Canada began hosting a three-day forum made up of policy professionals, practitioners, security forces and health subject matter experts as part of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) “Raising Awareness and Promoting Cooperation on Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Risk Mitigation” Workshop, March 6-8.
This CBRN workshop is another step in longstanding partnerships with participating nations that will help improve disaster and disease response preparedness, while enhancing relationships among all participants.
"This event is focused on enabling ARF State leaders with CBRN risk mitigation in the context of counterterrorism and how to best enable country and regional response in the occurrence of a CBRN event," said Col. Victor Caravello, Pacific Command representative.
Led by officials from the Philippines, U.S. and Canada, the ARF workshop team aims to bring 21 nations and the European Union together to collaborate and build on previously established disaster response plans.
“ASEAN members are a part of a large and complex network, and in this context it faces many challenges in seeking to prevent the proliferation and strategic trade of dangerous items, to include CBRN and related materials,” said John Holmes, Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines. “There remains a clear threat that no country or region is immune to. We must work diligently and collectively to combat this global issue.”
The workshop started with opening comments from representatives from each lead agency. It also provided the participants with a regional CBRN threat assessment, followed by an overview of EU accomplishments on CBRN risk mitigation from 2015 and recommendations on moving forward.
Day two will provide an overview of national response plans from select countries followed by case studies of actual CBRN responses. The heads of delegation from various ARF member nations will also convene to discuss strategies for the next steps with CBRN Risk Mitigation.
The event will close with participants from each member state attending one of three working groups to help formulate strategies for advancing regional response capabilities, information and technology sharing. There will also be a presentation on what the heads of delegation recommend as a path forward.
“The goal of this effort is to provide a venue to identify, highlight best practices, exchange and share information,” said Michael Klecheski, U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission to the Philippines. “Use this opportunity to help build on common approaches to what is unfortunately a common problem, because I think it’s safe to say that all of us can learn from one another.”
| Date Taken: | 03.06.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 03.12.2018 19:56 |
| Story ID: | 268527 |
| Location: | PASAY CITY, PH |
| Web Views: | 124 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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