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US, ASEAN cooperate on environment
Balthasar Kambuaya: JP/Tifa Asrianti The United States is reaching out to ASEAN countries once again
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Balthasar Kambuaya: JP/Tifa Asrianti
The United States is reaching out to ASEAN countries once again. This time, they are offering the assistance of their armed forces in dealing with environmental issues.
The US has sent representatives from its Pacific Command (USPACOM) to the first Regional Environmental Security Conference held in Jakarta to assist their ASEAN counterparts by sharing their experiences and expertise in handling environmental cases.
According to Joshua Curtin, deputy representative of the US mission to ASEAN, environmental issues presented serious challenges that could pose risks to a country’s national security. He cited climate change, water scarcity, illegal logging and earthquakes as examples.
“Disaster relief and other areas related to environmental security are some of the most important issues we face at the moment,” said Curtin.
He added that USPACOM, given their uniquely extensive role, had a number of competencies that they could bring to the forum, hoping the region would develop its own capacity for implementing environmental security issues.
The Indonesian Environment Minister Balthasar Kambuaya welcomed USPACOM’s involvement in the conference, saying military forces, including those of Indonesia, had a role in solving environmental problems.
“The military can help protect and monitor the environment. There are illegal logging and fishing problems in Indonesia to name a few. So we hope our military can secure these Indonesian resources,” said Balthasar.
The conference is being attended by nine ASEAN countries (excluding Brunei Darussalam), the US, Australia, China and Timor Leste, and is expected to run until April 5. Indonesia is represented by 40 military officers and staff from the Foreign and Defense Ministries and the National Disaster Mitigation Agency.
Organizations such as the World Food Programme and USAID are also participating.
Curtin said he hoped that the conference could anchor the concept of environmental challenges as security challenges and to bring together civilian agencies and military representatives to emphasize the importance of civil-military cooperation in addressing environmental security issues.
“In our case, in the US, civilian agencies lead on environmental and disaster issues. However, the military, given their resources, capabilities, equipment, experience and planning capabilities are the key implementing partner in the event of an environmental disaster,” he told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
USPACOM’s director for logistics, engineering and security assistance Brig. Gen. Kevin O’Connell said that by bringing the policy makers and community practitioners to the forum, they had set the conditions to establish a network for cooperation and a platform for discussion and dialogue to share their experience.
“It’s really to strengthen the partnerships that are already developed between the US and Southeast Asia. We need to develop response strategies to mitigate the issues and conduct contingency planning for crisis response,” he told the Post. (tas)
