The San Diego-based hospital ship USNS Mercy arrived in Port Kelang, Malaysia, on Monday to practice disaster relief in the Pacific Partnership 2018 exercise.
The ship’s mission in Malaysia will feature medical exchanges, civil engineering projects, humanitarian-assistance and disaster-relief training, and community outreach engagements in the greater Kuala Lumpur area.
Another ship, the expeditionary fast transport USNS Brunswick, will arrive in Tawau, Malaysia, on April 21 for a series of civil engineering, medical and outreach engagements with the local community and the Royal Malaysian Armed Forces.
“Our Malaysian partners offer a multitude of opportunities to grow our shared capabilities in medical, civil engineering, and disaster-relief preparedness,” said Capt. David Bretz, Pacific Partnership mission commander.
“Pacific Partnership provides participating nations an opportunity to share past experiences, compare tactics and procedures, and to have an appreciation of what other people have done and are doing to solve regional challenges,” he added.
The Pacific Partnership is the largest annual multilateral disaster-response preparedness mission conducted in the Indo-Pacific region. This year’s mission involves more than 800 military and civilian personnel from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, France, Peru and Japan.
After Malaysia, the Mercy will visit Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and Japan.
