MILITARIES should look to increase their effectiveness in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief efforts, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said yesterday.

With armed forces playing an increasingly larger role in these areas, he called for a clearly defined military doctrine to stop them running the risk of becoming “unsustainable, ineffective and inefficient”.

He was speaking at the opening of the World Humanitarian Summit Global Forum on Humanitarian Civil-Military Coordination held at Changi Naval Base.

The three-day forum, attended by more than 100 policymakers and operational experts from more than 25 countries, will help to shape the discussions and agenda for the World Humanitarian Summit to be held in Istanbul, Turkey, in May next year.

… Dr Ng noted that the SAF has made efforts in this area by working with the Singapore Red Cross and Mercy Relief, as well as local think-tanks such as the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.