Waqar-Uz-Zaman meets Australian Army chief, senior US Army official

Chief of Army Staff General Waqar-Uz-Zaman held separate bilateral meetings with Chief of the Australian Army Lieutenant General Susan Coyle and Deputy Commanding General of the US Army Pacific (USARPAC) Lieutenant General Joel B Vowell in Perth, Australia, on Tuesday.

The meetings were held on the sidelines of the Land Forces International Land Defence Exposition and Chief of Army Symposium 2026.

During the meeting with Coyle, the two sides discussed mutual military cooperation, training, capability development and welfare initiatives.

Coyle commended the modernisation efforts of the Bangladesh Army, while both sides stressed the need to further expand training, exchange experiences and strengthen mutual cooperation.

In a separate meeting with Vowell, discussions focused on enhancing cooperation and information sharing between the two armies.

They also discussed the Disaster Response Exercise and Exchange (DREE) to strengthen disaster response preparedness, the introduction of training courses at the Bangladesh Institute of Peace Support Operation Training (BIPSOT) with funding from the Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI), and increased participation of US military personnel in courses at the National Defence College (NDC) and Defence Services Command and Staff College (DSCSC) in Bangladesh.