MUARA, Thursday, 27 October 2022 – The 16th series of Exercise Sembilang, the bilateral exercise between Police Marine, Royal Brunei Police Force (POLMAR, RBPF) and Royal Brunei Navy (RBN), has concluded with a closing ceremony held at the POLMAR Headquarters. This year, POLMAR hosted the four-day exercise which started from 24th October to 27th October 2022, involving assets from RBN under the coordination of POLMAR and RBN.
In efforts to tackle Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing (IUUF), a joint compliant boarding exercise was conducted successfully during the sea phase involving a rigid inflatable boat from Naval Surface Action Group (NAVSAG) and a Fast Patrol Boat, KDB SYAFAAT which acted as the illegal fishing vessel. As the key players in preserving Brunei Darussalam's maritime safety and integrity, personnel from the RBN and POLMAR exchanged tactics and procedures that further enhanced their knowledge and skills in a boarding scenario. Lastly, to celebrate and strengthen the comradeship between both agencies, a competitive match of futsal, volleyball and tug-of-war was held for the SEMBILANG Cup which was won by the Police Marine.
Officiating the closing ceremony was Captain Khairil bin Haji Abdul Rahman, the RBN Fleet Commander. During his closing remarks, he highlighted the importance of RBN and POLMAR working together mitigating maritime security issues as part of the Whole of Government approach. He also invited POLMAR to join RBN's maritime patrol resuming Operasi Sembilang which has been put on a hiatus since the COVID-19 pandemic.
With this, Task Group 16.1 was officially deactivated.
