Taiwan Today
Date: November 29, 2016
A one-day interagency disaster response exercise is underway in the waters surrounding Taiping Island
Taiping Island is hosting an interagency disaster response exercise demonstrating the government’s commitment to transforming the island into a base for providing humanitarian aid and supplies in the South China Sea. (CNA)
in the Nansha (Spratly) Islands as part of Republic of China (Taiwan) government efforts to transform the island into a base for providing humanitarian aid and supplies in the South China Sea, according to the Coast Guard Administration Nov. 29.
Operation Nanyuan No. 1 involves elements of the CGA and other central government agencies working together for the first time on and around the largest naturally formed island in the Nansha Islands. It aims to demonstrate the government’s capacity for conducting maritime surveillance and providing emergency assistance.
The drill involves three aircraft and eight vessels responding to a blaze aboard a foreign-flagged cargo ship forcing the crew to leap into the waters near Taiping Island. Its five phases are emergency notification and division of operational responsibilities; firefighting and rescue operations; supply replenishment and damage control; telemedicine and the dispatch of medical aircraft; and transferring the injured to Taiping Island and emergency medical evacuation to Taiwan proper.
Since assuming responsibility in 2000 for maintaining the government’s presence on Taiping Island as part of the Nansha Islands, as well as the Dongsha (Pratas) Islands, the CGA has conducted 70 disaster response and humanitarian aid missions and assisted 100 individuals from home and abroad. [FULL STORY]
