{"id":489899,"date":"2025-06-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=489899"},"modified":"2025-06-23T03:20:24","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T03:20:24","slug":"washington-guard-malaysia-armed-forces-strengthen-ties-at-bersama-warrior-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=489899","title":{"rendered":"Washington Guard, Malaysia Armed Forces strengthen ties at Bersama Warrior 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n U.S. and Malaysian Armed Forces service members pose for a group photo during the Bersama Warrior 25 opening ceremony at the Joint Warfighting Center, Kuantan, Malaysia, June 17, 2025. Bersama Warrior is an annual, bilateral joint exercise sponsored by the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and hosted by the Malaysian Armed Forces. This year marks the 11th iteration of the exercise, and the first time MRF-D is participating, enhancing U.S. and Malaysian defense readiness and improving combined joint interoperability. MRF-D is an annual six-month rotational deployment to enhance interoperability with the Australian Defence Force and allies and partners and provide a forward-postured crisis response force in the Indo-Pacific.
\n (Photo Credit: Courtesy photo provided by the Malaysian Armed Forces)<\/span>
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KUANTAN, Malaysia \u2014 The 11th annual Bersama Warrior exercise began with an opening ceremony June 17, 2025, with keynote addresses from Malaysian Lt. Gen. Dato\u2019 Zahani Bin Hj Zainal Abidin and U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Michael Ake.<\/p>\n

Bersama Warrior is an annual, bilateral joint exercise sponsored by the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and hosted by the Malaysian Armed Forces. The exercise enhances U.S. and Malaysian defense readiness, improves interoperability and strengthens the Department of Defense National Guard Bureau’s State Partnership Program relationship between the Malaysian Armed Forces and the Washington National Guard.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we sharpen our operational planning, we also strengthen our ability to respond as a unified team to emerging challenges, whether they are humanitarian crises, natural disasters or regional threats to peace and stability,\u201d Ake said during his opening statement.<\/p>\n

With more than 90 U.S. personnel participating, this exercise runs through June 26 and will provide the operational planning and lay the groundwork for next year\u2019s exercise. The primary goal of the annual exercise is to provide a venue for exchanging tactics, techniques and procedures for peace support operations, with an emphasis on counterterrorism and humanitarian assistance, while demonstrating the U.S. resolve to support the security interests of allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo us, this is more than just a planning exercise. It\u2019s a meaningful platform that grows operational readiness, strengthens our beautiful partnership and cultivates a spirit of mutual respect and cooperation of our armed forces,\u201d Zahani said.<\/p>\n

Since formalizing their partnership in August 2017, the Washington National Guard and the Malaysian Armed Forces have consistently engaged in exercises such as Bersama Warrior. These regular interactions strengthen mutual capabilities, reinforce security cooperation, and foster meaningful connections between their personnel.<\/p>\n

Related Links<\/h5>\n

The Official Website of the National Guard | NationalGuard.mil<\/a><\/p>\n

The National Guard on Facebook | Facebook.com\/TheNationalGuard<\/a><\/p>\n

The National Guard on X | X.com\/USNationalGuard<\/a><\/p>\n

State Partnership Program | NationalGuard.mil<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. and Malaysian Armed Forces service members pose for a group photo during the Bersama Warrior 25 opening ceremony at the Joint Warfighting Center, Kuantan, Malaysia, June 17, 2025. Bersama Warrior is an annual, bilateral joint exercise sponsored by the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and hosted by the Malaysian Armed Forces. This year marks the 11th […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485246,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-489899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=489899"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":489901,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489899\/revisions\/489901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/485246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=489899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=489899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=489899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}