It was the first time for Wang Weijin, Anthony Anderson and Diulazhar bin Hj Abd Latif, sappers from China, New Zealand and Brunei, to work with foreign soldiers. None of them had expected it would be an enjoyable experience.

After days of preparation, their multinational team has been able to build a 50-meter suspension bridge within hours during the first ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting Plus Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief and Military Medicine Exercise.

"There are some difficulties in working with international forces, such as the language obstacles, but we're here for the same purpose - saving lives," Anderson, 24, said on Tuesday during the exercise held in Brunei.

His face and thick uniform, plus a life vest, were soaked with perspiration as the temperature reached 35 C outside.

Even though the main working language during the exercise is English, Anderson kept learning Chinese with a pocket book when he could have a rest.

Diulazhar, who can say numbers and make orders such as "push" and "pull" in Chinese, said he was initially "nervous" about working with international forces, but it is easy to make progress with "friendly and professional" Chinese soldiers.

The exercise, involving more than 2,000 military personnel from 18 countries, was set to run from Monday to Friday in several areas of Brunei. China has dispatched 110 command and staff officers, engineers and medics, and the PLA Navy hospital ship Peace Ark to take part in the exercise.

A big step

Officials and analysts said it marked a big step in strengthening trust and cooperation in jointly addressing unconventional security challenges among Asia-Pacific militaries.

Wu Xihua, deputy director of the emergency response office of the People's Liberation Army General Staff Headquarters, said the region is prone to natural disasters such as tsunamis and earthquakes, which make multilateral exercises so important.

"The good thing now is that our communication has been smooth and we have been formulating standard operational procedures for the exercise, which will help to improve the efficiency of joint disaster rescue and military medical care in real disaster scenarios," said Wu, who is also the deputy general director of the joint exercise.

The exercise involved the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, as well as Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea and the United States. The exercise involves multilateral responses to a training scenario with post-tropical storm rescue, surveying, recovery and disaster relief. The exercise is also the first time China and the US have conducted combined training in humanitarian assistance and military medicine on a multilateral basis.

It was not easy for Brunei, this year's chair of ASEAN, to bring participants from "diverse" regions together, but the exercise has already seemed to meet expectations, said Joint Force Commander of the Royal Brunei Armed Forces Dato Paduka Seri Haji Aminuddin Ihsan.

Ngien Hoon Ping, director of Joint Operations from the Singapore Armed Forces, said he was happy to see soldiers from various countries learn from and make friends with each other, "not concerning which country they come from but just focusing on the professional aspect".

Xu Liping, an expert on Southeast Asian studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the exercise is a platform for these countries to see the huge common interests they share.

Cooperation projects in non-traditional security areas are a relatively easy and less sensitive way for every side to deepen military interactions and mutual trust, which is the essential element to address disputes and maintain regional stability, Xu said.

zhaoshengnan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 06/19/2013 page11)