Hanoi (VNA) - The 10-member ASEAN is set to hold a joint disaster response drill in the Philippines around the first half of 2009 to test international coordination in heeding catastrophes, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo said that members states of the ASEAN Regional Forum, a 27-member security assembly that includes the United States, Russia, the European Union, and China, may also take part in the exercise.
Details of the drill - the scenario, participants, Philippine location and date - are still being planned, but the Secretary said the exercise might be held around May, next year.
ASEAN foreign and defense ministers have recently agreed to formalise a mechanism of regional assistance in times of calamities, a need further underlined by the crises in food, rice supply and energy.-Enditem
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