Singapore Hosts Multinational Maritime Interdiction Exercise
12 August 2005
Proliferation Security Initiative exercise deepens regional cooperation
Singapore will host a multinational maritime training exercise August 15-19 to practice procedures designed to disrupt trafficking of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and associated technology to states and nonstate actors of proliferation concern.
“Deep Sabre,” part of the two-year-old Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), is the first PSI exercise to be held in Southeast Asia. The United States will provide some military assets for the Singapore-led exercise including a Navy destroyer with a Coast Guard Law Enforcement ship-boarding team as well as a maritime patrol aircraft.
Additionally, Deep Sabre will be supported operationally by Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Singapore’s customs and defense ministries have invited a number of nations from the Asia Pacific region to observe all aspects of the exercise so they may see the importance to the region of the air-land-sea initiative.
In May, Singapore’s ambassador to the United States, Chan Heng Chee, told diplomats and military officers in Washington marking the second anniversary of PSI that her country’s participation in the initiative is important in view of global terrorism and the dangerous possibility that weapons of mass destruction could fall “into the hands of terrorists and other undesirable elements.”
This notion is not far-fetched, Ambassador Chan said. She went on to say that any use of WMD in a small city-state like her country “would result in untold catastrophic consequences beyond what we saw on 9/11.”
Deep Sabre has particular relevance for the Asia Pacific region because "some of the world’s most important shipping lanes and trade routes straddle archipelagic Southeast Asia,” the ambassador said. She also pointed out that Singapore is one of the world’s busiest ports since 18 million containers pass through it annually.
Singapore has been participating actively in a variety of multinational PSI exercises since December 2003.
The mid-August exercise will be the 18th PSI exercise since it was first announced in Poland by President Bush in May 2003.
When he testified before Congress in June, Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control Stephen Rademaker said PSI serves to create patterns of cooperation among countries. Such patterns will prove invaluable should an actual interdiction be required in the future.
An August 12 State Department release announcing U.S. participation in Deep Sabre said the exercise “will promote greater awareness of and involvement in the PSI throughout the region.” To further highlight its importance, the department’s new under secretary of state for arms control and international security will observe the launch of the exercise. Robert Joseph, formerly of the National Security Council, has long promoted this global initiative.
Following is the text of the State Department announcement:
(begin text)
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
August 12, 2005
Media Note
Singapore Hosts Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) Interdiction Exercise (DEEP SABRE)
The United States will participate in a multinational Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) interdiction training exercise, DEEP SABRE, hosted by Singapore August 15-19, 2005, in the South China Sea. This is the eighteenth exercise in support of the Proliferation Security Initiative since President Bush announced the PSI in Krakow, Poland on May 31, 2003. It is the first PSI exercise hosted by Singapore, the first to be conducted in Southeast Asia, and it highlights the importance of the PSI in the Asian-Pacific region.
The Singapore-hosted exercise is advancing the operational capabilities of PSI participating nations by integrating an at-sea boarding (conducted by a combination of military and law enforcement forces) with a port search operation (conducted primarily by law enforcement). The exercise also will promote greater awareness of and involvement in the PSI throughout the region.
Many countries will participate in the exercise, including states from the Asian-Pacific region. Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States will contribute operational assets to the exercise. Observers have been invited from the Asia Pacific region.
For the United States, the U.S. Navy destroyer USS JOHN PAUL JONES and an embarked U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment (LEDET) ship-boarding team as well as a P-3C maritime patrol aircraft will participate.
Robert Joseph, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security will observe the start of the exercise.
For additional information on the Proliferation Security Initiative, please see http://www.state.gov/t/np/c10390.htm.
(end text)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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