Top-level land forces military officials yesterday sought cooperation from different nations for combating non-traditional threats and challenges, saying no single nation now was able to tackle the contemporary threats alone.
“We are now facing the kinds of threats that transcend the geographical borders. Famine, disease, natural disasters, illegal drug cartels, child and women traffickers, trans-national terrorist organisations and the like do not respect national borders; they affect us all,” General Iqbal Karim Bhuiyan, chief of army staff at Bangladesh Army, said.
Cooperation was needed among nations as no single country had the unique capacity to deal with all these threats, Gen Iqbal told the inauguration ceremony of the 38th Pacific Armies Management Seminar (PAMS) at the capital’s Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel, organised by Bangladesh Army, in cooperation with US Army Pacific (USARPAC).
Regarding the PAMS, the army chief also said: “PAMS 38 offers us the much sought for opportunity to discuss such common issues and explore new areas of cooperation. The seminar is aimed to cast a new look on the security environment of the region in search of emerging opportunities and develop a theoretical construct for collective efforts towards surmounting the prevailing and upcoming challenges.”
Also speaking at the ceremony, the commanding general of the US Army Pacific, Vincent K Brooks, said the multinational seminar has become the premier annual forum in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region for promoting security cooperation enhancing dialogue and cooperation among nations.
“The relationships that are renewed here for some and initiated here for others, will form the channels of communication that will help to avert crisis among us. And that will enhance military cooperation when we find ourselves responding to an international crisis where we find common interests,” he added.
He also opined that the nations should work together to address common threats such as international terrorism and violent extremism, cyber crime, infectious diseases and environmental changes that threaten the safety of human populations.
Gen Brooks added that the land forces might include working with other government agencies, or with international bodies, or with non-governmental groups who are trying to make a difference.
The four-day-long seminar began yesterday with the theme: “A New Focus on the Asia-Pacific Region: Opportunities and Challenges for Land Forces.” Nearly 120 delegates from 25 countries are participating the seminar to discuss contemporary issues of common concern.
Organisers have said the seminar would emphasise on the need for increased cooperation among the regional land forces towards developing common modalities of countering non-traditional security threats.
The PAMS will also work towards building response capacity of land forces for issues of environmental security through raising awareness within the overall framework of human security.
