East Timor — PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP ARRIVES IN EAST TIMOR

Health spe­cial­ists and engi­neers from the US mil­i­tary and Aus­tralian Defence Force (ADF) will form the basis of a human­i­tar­i­an assis­tance mis­sion in East Tim­or over the next two weeks.

As part of Pacif­ic Part­ner­ship 2010 (PP10), med­ical, den­tal and engi­neer­ing aid projects will be con­duct­ed in Dili, Same, Soiba­da, Suai and Laclubar. 

HMA Ships Labuan and Tarakan will sup­port Unit­ed States Naval Ship (USNS) Mer­cy by host­ing the health teams in the regions of Oecus­si and Lautem. At the same time the engi­neers from the 2nd Com­bat Engi­neer Reg­i­ment and their U.S. Navy coun­ter­parts will com­plete an engi­neer­ing project in Dili. 

The ADF will pro­vide in-coun­try advice and spe­cial­ist sup­port to PP10 engi­neer­ing and med­ical projects through the ADF-led Inter­na­tion­al Sta­bil­i­sa­tion Force (ISF) and the Defence Coop­er­a­tion Pro­gram (DCP).

Com­man­der of the ISF in East Tim­or, Colonel Simon Stu­art said the arrival of the Pacif­ic Part­ner­ship team will enhance the mul­ti-nation­al effort across the coun­try and deliv­er much need­ed med­ical and den­tal care. 

“It is great to see such a diverse range of per­son­nel from var­i­ous mil­i­taries and non-gov­ern­ment organ­i­sa­tions work­ing along­side the ADF and the East Tim­or Defence Force (F‑FDTL) in the con­duct of engi­neer­ing and health projects across Tim­or,” Colonel Stu­art said. 

PP10 par­tic­i­pants for East Tim­or include mil­i­tary per­son­nel from Aus­tralia, Cana­da, Por­tu­gal, the Repub­lic of Korea, the Unit­ed King­dom, and the U.S, as well as numer­ous vol­un­teers from non-gov­ern­ment organisations. 

PP10 is the fifth in a series of annu­al U.S. Pacif­ic Fleet human­i­tar­i­an assis­tance endeav­ours aimed at strength­en­ing region­al part­ner­ships between U.S. gov­ern­ment organ­i­sa­tions, host nations, part­ner nations, and inter­na­tion­al human­i­tar­i­an and relief organisations. 

Media con­tact: Defence Media Liai­son: 02 6127 1999 or 0408 498 664 

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

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