Australien — Pacific Partnership 2010

Australia’s involve­ment in the Pacif­ic region is being bol­stered with par­tic­i­pa­tion in the annu­al US-led human­i­tar­i­an assis­tance mis­sion Pacif­ic Part­ner­ship 2010 (PP10).

USNS Mer­cy at Guam, home to the Aus­tralian con­tin­gent for the next few months dur­ing Pacif­ic Part­ner­ship. Aus­tralian Depart­ment of Defence Click to enlarge

Ini­tial­ly, twen­ty two Aus­tralian Defence Force (ADF) mem­bers will join the Unit­ed States Navy Ship (USNS) Mer­cy in Guam as the first of three sep­a­rate Aus­tralian con­tin­gents to rotate through the region over the next three months. 

The PP10 mis­sion marks the fifth year of Aus­tralian par­tic­i­pa­tion, and will pro­vide engi­neer­ing and med­ical assis­tance in Viet­nam, Cam­bo­dia, Indone­sia, East Tim­or and Papua New Guinea. 

PP10 is aimed at strength­en­ing inter­na­tion­al rela­tion­ships and inter­op­er­abil­i­ty for dis­as­ter relief through­out South East Asia and Ocea­nia. A total of approx­i­mate­ly 70 ADF per­son­nel will be based out of USNS Mer­cy in Viet­nam, Cam­bo­dia, Indone­sia and East Tim­or dur­ing PP10. Addi­tion­al­ly, RAN assets HMA Ships Labuan and Tarakan will pro­vide assis­tance with ship to shore move­ments in some countries. 

Lieu­tenant Gen­er­al Mark Evans, Chief of Joint Oper­a­tions, said the sup­port the ADF is pro­vid­ing to this year’s Pacif­ic Part­ner­ship was an impor­tant exam­ple of region­al engagement. 

“It real­ly demon­strates the government’s com­mit­ment to our region and the ADF’s focus on inter­op­er­abil­i­ty with our neigh­bours,” added LTGEN Evans. 

PP10 has been held annu­al­ly by US Pacif­ic Fleet since the dev­as­tat­ing effects of the Box­ing Day Tsuna­mi in 2004. 

Press release
Min­is­te­r­i­al Sup­port and Pub­lic Affairs,
Depart­ment of Defence,
Can­ber­ra, Australia