Cambodia to host U.S.-backed peacekeeping exercise in mid-2010+

Sep 24, 2009

(CAAI News Media)

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 24 (AP) - (Kyodo)—The United States has reaffirmed its backing of Cambodia to host an annual multilateral exercise next year to train peacekeepers for U.N. and regional peace support operations, according to Cambodia's defense minister.

Defense Minister Tea Banh told reporters late Wednesday upon returning from a four-day visit to the United States that Cambodia will host the 2010 Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI) Capstone Exercise, with U.S. backing.

GPOI is a U.S.-funded Group of Eight program to expand global capacity to train and equip 75,000 international peacekeepers by the year 2010.

Military sources said the next year's GPOI Capstone Exercise, provisionally dubbed Angkor Sentinel 10, will be held in Cambodia in June or July with some 2,000 participants or observers from 23 countries, including as many as 1,500 U.S. military personnel.

A U.N. Force Headquarters computer-simulated command post exercise will take place in Phnom Penh, while a field training exercise will be held in Kompong Speu Province, about 60 kilometers west of the capital.

Next year's exercise will be the 10th of its kind.

The last such exercise was co-hosted by the United States and Indonesia in June 2009, with the invitees consisting of Australia, Bangladesh, Britain, Brunei, Cambodia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, New Zealand, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Thailand, Tonga and Vietnam.