An ARF Train the Trainers Seminar "Towards Common Approaches to Disaster Relief Training", attended by emergency civil defense agencies and Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs of 19 ARF countries, was held from 25-28 January 2000 in Bangkok, Thailand. The Seminar was convened by Thailand and Australia on the recommendation by the 6th ASEAN Regional Forum held in Singapore on 26 July 1999, funded by the Australian Government. ADPC acted as technical advisor, with representatives of the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) as resource persons.

The Seminar's aim was to promote co-operation in disaster relief training among ARF countries through the sharing of expertise and investigating possibilities for developing common approaches to training, particularly between military and civilian disaster relief agencies. A further objective was to identify gaps in training needs at the national or international level with a view to making recommendations which could form the basis of future training activities among ARF countries, as well as contributing towards networking and confidence-building among participants.

The Seminar was held in plenary, with presentations and case studies on disaster relief training in ASEAN and in Asia-Pacific. Discussion Group sessions provided the opportunity for participants to interact and to consider existing capacities, gaps in capacities, and opportunities for sharing. The broad conclusions of the Discussion Groups were brought together in the final plenary session and were summarized in the General Findings. As a concluding activity, a field trip was made to the Port Authority of Thailand's Fire Damage Prevention Training Center, where participants were briefed on the history and activities of the Center in fire damage prevention and witnessed a series of disaster relief exercises.