Trump-Kim Jong-un Summit In Singapore To Be Secured By Gurkhas From Nepal

Singapore’s Gurkha Contingent is one amongst the several elite police teams of Singapore that are tasked with securing the highly aniticipated summit between United States (US) president Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, ABC Australia has reported.

The eagerly awaited summit, to be held in the Capella Hotel on Singapore’s Sentosa island, is the first time the top leaders of the two countries will meet in person. It is widely expected to lead to a breakthrough on the issue of North Korean denuclearisation with the possibility of peace in the Korean peninsula. Singapore, being a neutral country, has been chosen as the venue for the summit.

The Gurkhas are recruited into the Singaporean police from Nepal, and are equipped with top of the line arms and body armour apart from the quintessential Khukri.

According to the report, the Gurkhas have been more and more visible in the build-up to the summit and were also part of the security detail that secured the Shangri-La Hotel for a security conference that included Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

1,800 Gurkhas serve across six paramilitary companies of the Singapore police and are frequently deployed during times of regional tension, protecting high-value targets and borders. They are recruited at 18 or 19 from Nepal and serve in Singapore till 45 years of age.

“They remain very much a substantial and frontline force, and the demands of this kind of event are precisely the sort of special operation that the Gurkhas are trained to handle," an expert on Singapore’s security forces said.