Proliferation Security Initiative Exercise

A dozen or so nations are involved in exercises aimed at countering terrorists shipping WMD as reported here.

The drills are part of the U.S.-sponsored Proliferation Security Initiative to block the transfer of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, as well as missiles that can carry them and materials and equipment needed to make them.

Over 60 countries are signatories to the initiative. Participants this week include host Singapore, Canada, the United States, Australia, Britain, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Russia.

Ten ships, including the U.S. Navy destroyer USS John Paul Jones, and six maritime patrol aircraft are taking part in the drills.

"The terrorists aim for disruption on a dramatic scale, so the destructive power of WMD (weapons of mass destruction) has a clear attraction," Teo Chee Hean, Singapore's defence minister, said at the opening ceremony. "They will have no qualms about using what the civilized world regards as weapons of last resort."

Exactly.