MANILA, Thursday 27 February 2020 – The Final Planning Conference (FPC) of the 17th Western Pacific Naval Symposium (WPNS) and International Fleet Review 2020 (IFR) was conducted for two days on Wednesday, 26th February 2020 and Thursday, 27th February 2020, hosted by the Philippines Navy (PN) at the Diamond Hotel, Roxas Boulevard, Manila, Philippines.
A total of 19 navies attended the FPC namely from Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, Canada, China, France, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Myanmar, Pakistan, Peru, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, USA and Vietnam. Royal Brunei Navy (RBN) was represented by Lieutenant Commander Malek Fadillah bin Pehin Datu Juragan Haji Kefli, the Executive Officer of KDB DARULAMAN.
The 17th WPNS & IFR 2020 FPC was officiated by Rear Admiral Loumer P Bernabe AFP, The Naval Education, Training and Doctrine, Philippines Navy. In his welcome remarks, he expressed his appreciation of the delegates to be able to attend FPC and he emphasised participating navies to share any inputs or recommendations for the success of the event. The objective of the FPC was mainly to disseminate and finalise planning in detail on the WPNS IFR amongst the participating navies as well as to meet any logistics requirement during the event.
The 17th WPNS & IFR 2020 is planned to be conducted from the 17th to 23rd May 2020 in Manila, Philippines. The main highlight of the programmed activities will be the lFR 2020 on the 21st May 2020 in conjuction with the anniversary of Philippines Navy and to be conducted within the vicinity of Manila Bay.