Exercise Pandaroo 16 commences in New South Wales

Australian and Chinese soldiers have begun two weeks of adventure training in New South Wales between Canberra and Sydney as part of Exercise Pandaroo.

Deputy Commander of the 2nd Division Brigadier Damian Cantwell said the activity includes a range of team building and resilience activities such as white water kayaking, mountain biking, climbing, caving and roping.

“The exercise will build on the skills and experience gained during the recently completed Exercise Kowari 16 held in the Northern Territory,” Brigadier Cantwell said.

“These soldiers have developed life long friendships and a mutual trust and understanding of each other in an extremely challenging environment.

“These attributes will again be put to the test in a bi-lateral setting during the exercise.”

This is the second time the Australian Army has hosted Exercise Pandaroo and, like Exercise Kowari it marks an important milestone in Australia’s defence cooperation with China.

“The heat and humidity of the Northern Territory played a significant part in the survival training element of Exercise Kowari,” Brigadier Cantwell said.

“The cooler environment of New South Wales adds another dimension in which each participant will again have to rely on and trust his or her teammates to be successful.

“The exercise shows that despite differences between countries we can continue to work productively to promote mutual trust and understanding.”

Exercise Pandaroo runs from 12-27 September 2016. The ten participants will be supported by a multinational team of up to 30 personnel during this time.