CANBERRA—Army chiefs from 19 countries, including Australia, met secretly in a Sydney hotel last week, it was revealed today.
Australia's Chief of Army, Lieutenant General Peter Leahy, said it had been judged better not to publicise the fifth Pacific Armies Chief Conference while it was occurring.
The conference was held just a month before an APEC heads of government meeting in Sydney.
"We were aware that there's a lot going on in Sydney and we didn't want to make a fuss," Gen Leahy told ABC Radio.
The heads of army who attended the conference were from Australia, the United States, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, India, Japan, South Korea, Mongolia, Nepal, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tonga, and Vietnam.
Gen Leahy said he and his international colleagues had discussed some of the challenges facing modern armies, such as how to prepare for disaster relief, peacekeeping, peace support and counter-terrorism operations.
He said it was likely the armies of different nations would work more closely on educating their personnel.
"What we've all agreed is that we need to look at the methods of education and how we prepare our individuals for the uncertainty of these complex environments that we're headed into," he said.
"And I think you'll see more cooperation into the different armies to make sure that our soldiers are more culturally aware, linguistically attuned and able to deal in these very complex environments."
Feeds