Source: United States INDO PACIFIC COMMAND
CAMP WITHYCOMBE, Oregon –
More than 450 security cooperation stakeholders and international partners gathered at Camp Withycombe, OR, for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s (USINDOPACOM) combined Capabilities Development Working Group (CDWG) and Security Cooperation Education and Training Working Group (SCETWG) from Feb. 26-March 1, 2024.
Hosted by the USINDOPACOM J5 Strategic Policy and Planning Directorate, CDWG aims to identify and develop specific partner nation military capabilities, while SCETWG focuses on education and training opportunities for partner nation military members. The two events work in concert to further security cooperation initiatives in the region through numerous plenary and small group working sessions.
Representatives from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, returned to participate in CDWG. Delegations from Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) attended this year’s event for the first time, to further integrate and synchronize security cooperation efforts. The U.S. team hosted Bilateral Regional Capacity Building forums with both Japanese and ROK delegations to collaborate on current and future security cooperation initiatives and map out approaches to security cooperation in the region.
USINDOPACOM’s Deputy Director for Policy, British Commodore Jonathan Lett, chaired bilateral sessions and a trilateral luncheon with Japan and ROK to foster informal dialogue.
“The United States cannot and should not act alone in ensuring regional security,” Lett said. “For many years, our partners have been the missing piece in the puzzle in security cooperation planning. Your attendance at this event is a testament of what truly is a multinational effort to ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
As the largest milestone event of its kind, this year’s CDWG gave in-country security cooperation officers the opportunity to interface directly with representatives from across the enterprise to include Department of Defense (DoD) organizations, component commands, and other U.S. government agencies, all with a role in taking a security cooperation initiative from ideation to implementation.
“Your untiring efforts over the past two years have advanced our goals to operationalize security cooperation and take a more proactive approach to achieving top U.S. defense and security objectives in the priority theater,” said David Jensen, USINDOPACOM’s Security Cooperation Division Chief, in his closing remarks.
The directorate will host its next event in the security cooperation planning cycle, Capability Development and Exercises (CAPEX) Workshop, in fall 2024.