The bilateral military exercise between the Malaysian Army and the Royal Thailand Army known as Land Exercise Thamal (Thailand – Malaysia) serial 21/2015 was officially launched on Tuesday, July 28. The launching ceremony, held at the Camp Syed Putra parade ground, was steep in military tradition.
The emphasis of the week-long field exercise was on offensive operations in a counter-insurgency warfare setting. The exercise area was the jungles around Lintang near Chemor. The thickly wooded area provided a perfect environment for a jungle warfare-orientated exercise.
Participating troops were sourced from the infantry elements of the 2nd Malaysian Infantry Division and elements from the 5th Infantry Division of the Royal Thai Army (RTA).
“This joint exercise between troops from the Malaysian Army and the Royal Thai Army has been going for quite a while. It serves as an appropriate platform to foster good relationship besides enhancing the interoperability between both armies in supporting global and regional peace efforts,” said Maj-Gen Dato’ Fadzil bin Mokhtar, the General Officer Commanding of 2nd Malaysian Infantry Division and the joint chairman of the annual exercise in his opening address to the participating troops.
“The exercise is designed on both conventional and counter-insurgency warfare setting incorporating 30 per cent on humanitarian assistant disaster relief theories,” he explained.
Fadzil hoped that the exercise would enable both armies to better understand each other’s needs when operating together.
Exchanging of pennants and the wearing of exercise armbands followed soon after. This signalled the beginning of the exercise, which would end on Monday, August 3.
Present at the brief morning parade were Maj-Gen Kunnawut Mokaew, General Officer Commanding 5th Infantry Division RTA, the other joint chairman, Brig-Gen Mohammad bin Ab Rahman, Commander 2nd Malaysian Infantry Brigade and Colonel Paisan Nhusang, Commander 5th Infantry Regiment RTA.
Some 250 soldiers from both armies took part in the exercise.
Mei Kuan
