Malaysia/UK/Australien — Regional Security Partners mark Anzac Day in Malaysia

An Anzac Day Dawn Ser­vice was con­duct­ed by the mem­ber coun­tries of the Five Pow­er Defence Arrange­ments in Malaysia, where the Aus­tralian Defence Force (ADF) has joined the armed forces of Malaysia, New Zealand, Sin­ga­pore and the Unit­ed King­dom in a major mil­i­tary exer­cise focussed on region­al capac­i­ty build­ing and inter­op­er­abil­i­ty.

The Anzac Day Dawn Ser­vice was held in Penang, on the eve of the com­mence­ment of Exer­cise BERSAMA SHIELD, which will be con­duct­ed in var­i­ous loca­tions on the Malaysian Penin­su­la, Sin­ga­pore and in the South Chi­na Sea dur­ing 26 April to 7 May 2010. 

More than 350 peo­ple and Defence per­son­nel from Head­quar­ters Inte­grat­ed Area Defence Sys­tem (HQIADS), 324 Com­bat Sup­port Squadron, 92WG Detach­ment But­ter­worth, 75 Squadron, Rifle Com­pa­ny But­ter­worth, as well as UK and New Zealand mil­i­tary units attend­ed the Dawn Ser­vice at Penang’s WWI Memo­r­i­al Cenotaph. 

Memo­r­i­al wreaths were laid by Com­man­der HQIADS, Air Vice-Mar­shal Kevin Paule; the Com­mand­ing Offi­cer of 324 CSS, Wing Com­man­der Ken Robin­son; the Com­mand­ing Offi­cer of 75 Sqn, Wing Com­man­der Philip Arms; along with UK Forces rep­re­sen­ta­tive Wing Com­man­der David Mid­dle­ton and New Zealand Defence Force rep­re­sen­ta­tive, Com­man­der Peter Kempster. 

Air Vice-Mar­shal Paule deliv­ered the Aus­tralian Dawn Ser­vice speech, say­ing the brav­ery and tenac­i­ty of the ANZACs bequeathed a pow­er­ful lega­cy and cre­at­ed an endur­ing spir­it of courage, deter­mi­na­tion and mate­ship. The now well recog­nised Anzac spirit. 

“To this day, the val­ues our ANZACs dis­played are val­ues that we now pride our­selves on. Those of us in uni­form serve because we believe in the Anzac spir­it and the impor­tance of main­tain­ing our mil­i­tary forces,” Air Vice-Mar­shal Paule said. 

“Today, Aus­tralia has men and women deployed and involved in 13 oper­a­tions to bring peace, dis­as­ter relief, human­i­tar­i­an assis­tance and secu­ri­ty to many areas around the world.” 

BERSAMA SHIELD pro­vides the ADF with the oppor­tu­ni­ty to devel­op rela­tion­ships with impor­tant secu­ri­ty part­ners while rein­forc­ing Australia’s long-term com­mit­ment to region­al stability. 

The ADF assets involved in this exer­cise include HMA Ships Anzac and Suc­cess, eight F/A‑18 com­bat air­craft from 75 Squadron and one AP-3C Ori­on mar­itime patrol air­craft from 92 Wing. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs)