BANGKOK: Malaysia is to participate in this year's Cobra Gold, the world's longest running and largest multinational military exercise in Southeast Asia, which is back to full scale after being 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 will be held in Thailand between Feb 27 and March 10.
Defence attaché at the Malaysian embassy in Thailand, Brigadier-General Samsul Rizal Musa said a total of 43 Malaysian soldiers, including 37 officers, will participate in the annual exercise this year.
"This is the sixth time Malaysia is participating in Cobra Gold, and it will also be able to boost the level of confidence and understanding among countries involved in the Peace Enforcement Operation (PEO) and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations," he told Bernama.
Malaysia is among seven fully participating countries in this edition Cobra Gold exercise. The others are Thailand, the US, Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, and South Korea.
Meanwhile, Royal Thai Armed Forces Joint Chief of Staff, General Thitichai Tiantong said during a press conference at the Royal Thai Armed Forces headquarters today that this year's edition of the Cobra Gold exercise would be a Light Year format (under a two-year cycle of Light Year-Heavy Year alternate arrangement).
Thitichai said Myanmar will not take part in this year's Cobra Gold exercise due to "limited seats".
It is the third year in a row that Myanmar will not observe the military exercise.
Meanwhile, US senior defence official and defence attaché to Thailand Colonel Kurt Leffler said the US 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 the US and China, Beijing will be sending its troops to participate in the humanitarian assistance exercise this year. — Bernama