{"id":53974,"date":"2015-02-16T18:51:17","date_gmt":"2015-02-16T18:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=32595ffe8ffb46450fd0f3851baa8942"},"modified":"2015-02-16T18:51:17","modified_gmt":"2015-02-16T18:51:17","slug":"press-release-pm-meeting-with-the-sultan-of-brunei-february-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=53974","title":{"rendered":"Press release: PM meeting with the Sultan of Brunei: February 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>Following the meeting, a Downing Street spokesperson said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The Prime Minister welcomed His Majesty the Sultan of Brunei to Chequers this morning. They agreed to renew a long standing agreement to station UK troops at a garrison in Brunei for a further 5 years. The Prime Minister noted that the garrison enables the UK to provide a permanent presence in South Asia while also providing an opportunity for British forces to undertake extreme environment training.<\/p>\n<p>The leaders also discussed the ongoing work of the international coalition against <abbr title=\"Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant \u2013 also known as Islamic State, Da\u2019esh or ISIS\">ISIL<\/abbr> (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant \u2013 also known as Islamic State, Da\u2019esh or ISIS) in tackling Islamic extremism and providing humanitarian support to those affected. They agreed on the importance of making sure moderate Islam prevailed over extremist ideology and how both countries could continue to work to support this both at home and abroad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">The Sultan discussed Brunei\u2019s preparations for the forthcoming 2019 Southeast Asian Games. The Prime Minister noted that British companies are already working on preparations for the Games  and offered any further expertise the UK can offer following the London 2012 Olympics.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2 id=\"notes-to-editors\">Notes to editors<\/h2>\n<p>The UK has had a contingent of Gurkhas in Brunei since 1962.  Following Bruneian independence in 1984, Britain agreed to continue to station an Infantry Battalion in the Sultanate. The agreement is renewed every 5 years.<\/p>\n<p>There are approximately 2,000 British military personnel based in Brunei.  This number includes a resident infantry Battalion \u2013 which is currently the First Battalion, Royal Gurkha Rifles, Training Team Brunei \u2013 which provides training to members of the British Armed Forces and a small number of British loan service personnel who serve with the Bruneian Armed Forces.<\/p>\n<div class=\"call-to-action\">\n<p>Find out more about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/topical-events\/isil-uk-government-response--3\"><abbr title=\"Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant \u2013 also known as Islamic State, Da\u2019esh or ISIS\">ISIL<\/abbr>: UK government response.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Prime Minister and the Sultan of Brunei discussed continuing to station UK troops in Brunei and the international coalition against ISIL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53974"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53974\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}