Review of Regional Disaster Relief Cooperation
6th ARF Inter-Sessional Meeting on Disaster Relief
(18-20 September 2006, Qingdao, China)
REVIEW OF REGIONAL DISASTER RELIEF COOPERATION
Senior Colonel Pham Quoc Te,
Deputy Head of the Office,
National Committee on Search and Rescue of the SR Viet Nam
Mr. Co-Chairmen,
Dear colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
First of all, allow me, on behalf of the Vietnamese delegation, to express my sincere thanks for the excellent arrangements and warmest hospitality extended to us by China during our arrival and stay in this beautiful city of Qingdao. On this occasion, I also would like to reaffirm that the resumption of the ARF ISM DR since last year’s meeting is one of the timeliest decisions of our forum in response to the urgent needs of the region in the context of recently consecutive disasters in the region. As a matter of course, success of this DR meeting will set a very good example for the ARF style and spirit, thus moving the ARF process forward with a pace comfortable to all participants.
Before taking review onthe development of regional disaster relief cooperation since last year, let me brief on some outcomes of the 5th ISM-DR in Bangdung late November 2005.
During the meeting, ARF countries had extensive and fruitful discussions on the importance of civil-military cooperation in disaster relief and future direction of ARF ISM DR. The Meeting recognized that most countries already have civil-military cooperation arrangements in conducting domestic rescue operations and civil military coordination in DR is very crucial. Participants underlined that the key elements in strengthening civil-military coordination are information sharing, division of tasks and planning. The meeting proposed that ARF could explore cooperation in the area of sharing information and knowledge, conducting training programs, and building early warning systems. The Meeting discussed the issue on how ARF could enhance its cooperation in disaster relief, especially on capacity building of its participants including in training and updating the ARF contact points on disaster relief. The participants underlined the importance of implementing and operationalizing various outcomes of previous ARF meetings as well as the needs to enhance civil-military coordination and cooperation between the ARF participants in preventing and mitigating natural disasters as well as addressing the aftermaths of natural disasters.
Dear colleagues,
It is nearly one year since we met in Bangdung, Indonesia for the 5th ARF Inter-Sessional Meeting on Disaster Relief. Though a short passing time, our region has undergone not a few numbers of tragedies caused by natural disasters to the life and wellbeing of nations in the region. Natural disasters including recent Chanchu Storm that devastated Viet Nam, China and other regional countries, consecutive earthquakes in Indonesia and landslides in Viet Nam, took thousands of lives of innocent civilians and left hundreds of thousands other people without a place for inhabitance.
The disaster relief cooperation in the region has reached an important milestone when the ARF Ministers at their 13th meeting last July 2006 in Kuala Lumpur adopted the ARF Statement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response, which provides guidelines and direction for our future cooperation in the disaster relief activities.
The past year has seen good cooperation in disaster relief among regional countries, especially on the bilateral basis. There was the bilateral establishment of hot lines between the Naval Forces of Viet Nam, Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia and China to exchange information and coordinate efforts in responding emergency cases. There also was the signing of the Framework Agreement on cooperation in responding oil spill cases and protecting environment. Regional countries also worked closely with each other to assist emergency cases in disasters such as in the case of Chanchu Storm.
Besides that, there remain some challenges in disaster relief cooperation in the region such as: difficulty in exchanging timely information on coming disasters, difficulty in coordinating actions in on-spot search and rescue, and the pro-activeness in assisting each other’s search and rescue activities and delivering timely information on victims to their concerned countries.
Dear colleagues,
The 13th ARF Ministerial Meeting acknowledged the importance of the continuation of the ISM on DR and agreed that the ISM on DR should continue its work in finding ways to establish a resilient regional disaster preparedness and emergency management.
In light of the above, we should strengthen the exchange of timely information on disasters through setting up hot lines and updating contact details of national disaster relief agencies. At the same time, ARF countries should provide specific details of their resources that can be shared in the regional disaster relief efforts once disaster-affected countries call for assistance. Regional countries should make more favourable conditions for each other in carrying search and rescue activities in the spirit of the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response as well as the ARF Statement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response. Meanwhile, exchange of study visits and capacity building training courses should be promoted among ARF countries to share best practices, experience and lessons in responding disasters.Particularly, apart from multilateral cooperation among ARF participants, bilateral cooperation and arrangements between a number of ARF countries should be encouraged to have specific steps in assisting each other in disaster management.
Dear colleagues,
In conclusion, I would like to stress that the ARF ISM-DR contributed and continues to contribute significantly to the overall goals of enhancing mutual confidence and understanding through practical cooperation in disaster relief among the ARF participants. We are of the view that the implementation of various activities should be undertaken at a pace comfortable to all in order to further cooperation among the ARF participants in the common efforts in disaster management./.
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