The Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) is currently participating in the south-east Asia cooperation against terrorism (SEACAT) exercise, which is being held 17-25 June 2010 at Changi Naval Base.

The Singaporean Ministry of Defence said that SEACAT was an annual exercise aimed at enhancing maritime information sharing and interoperability between maritime security responses, according to channelnewsasia.com.

During the exercise, the RSN will join the navies of the US, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand to carry out planning exercises at the base.

Participating countries will also practise tracking and boarding ships simulating merchant vessels suspected of assisting in criminal and terrorist activities at sea.

The RSN’s maritime security task force, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, and the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority are also participating in the exercise.

SEACAT 2010 is the ninth multinational maritime exercise in the series, since beginning in 2002.