DHAKA:  The 38th Pacific Armies Management Seminar (PAMS) began in the city Sunday emphasizing on united cooperation in suppressing international militancy and terrorism.

Curtain of the event was unveiled in the city’s Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel in the morning.

At the inaugural functions, Bangladesh Army Chief General Iqbal Karim Bhuiyan delivered the welcome speech and US Army Pacific Commanding General Vincent K. Brooks also addressed there.

General Iqbal Karim said, “No country can face threats to the security alone. For this, cooperation from all is necessary.”

General Brooks said-- cooperation from all is necessary to face the international militancy and terrorism.

The theme for PAMS is “A new focus on the Asia-Pacific region: Opportunities and challenges for land forces”. Representatives from 25 countries have taken part in the seminar.

At the PAMS, seminar participants will discuss topics that relate to this theme.

They are: “Practicing cooperation, developing interoperability of concepts for non-traditional security”; “Balancing requirements for meeting traditional and non-traditional threats”; “Civil-military and multinational cooperation, the essential elements for future stability”; “Building response capacity of land forces for issues of environmental security”.

Bangladesh is co-hosting the PAMS with the US Army for the second times some 22 years after the country first hosted the event in 1994.

It is a multinational military seminar that provides a forum for senior-level (lieutenant colonel to lieutenant general, or national equivalent) officers from the Asia Pacific’s regional ground forces to exchange views and ideas. 

It is not only a forum to enhance understanding of the subjects studied, it also provides an opportunity for the future leaders of the region’s armies to establish and cultivate a set of strong interpersonal relationships.
  
The long-term objective of PAMS is to facilitate capacity building via information exchange and dialogue on theme and topics, promote security cooperation in an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect and reassuring regional allies and partners in the interests of national security, of the US Army’s commitment to the region.

Pacific Armies Management Seminars have been held throughout the Asia Pacific Region since 1978 with the officials from nine countries. Now it is a platform of 36 countries.

BDST: 1011 HRS, SEP 14, 2014