VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Jakarta (voinews.id): Personnel of the Indonesian Maritime Security Agency (Bakamla) completed their small boat operation (SBO) training with the United States Coast Guard (USCG) Mobile Training Team.

The closing ceremony for the training session, presided over by the agency's Director of Training, Commodore Suwito, took place in North Jakarta, Friday (February 3), Bakamla's Public Relations officer Captain Yuhanes Antara noted.

According to the statement received on Saturday, he said that the SBO training was organized in cooperation between the Bakamla and the USCG, with assistance from the Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC) of the US Embassy in Jakarta.

The training was held as the implementation of a work plan in accordance with a memorandum of understanding signed between Indonesia and the United States on April 27, 2018, he remarked.

"The work plan includes cooperation on training in USCG academy, commissioned officer school, courses on international maritime officers, and other maritime security technical training," Antara stated.

The cooperation also took the form of organizational partnership that includes training and courses on maritime security in Indonesia and the United States, exchange of expert officers, seminars, and experience, as well as consultation and open dialogue on maritime security, he stated.

Meanwhile, the Bakamla official noted that the SBO training, provided at the two levels of basic and advanced, aims to enhance the capability of Bakamla personnel in operating small boats according to its technical procedure.

"Surely, it means adherence to safe and effective procedures to support Bakamla's operational readiness. Moreover, the training is also a medium to help officers assigned to patrol boats familiarized with performing small boats' operational procedure," Antara expounded.

He remarked that some skills gained by officers during the training are boat handling, safe boat mooring and release, person overboard rescue, and handling of likely emergency scenarios in small boats. (Antaranews)