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AM-HEx 2016 joint exercise begins in Thailand

Xinhua, September 6, 2016 Adjust font size:

Troops from 18 countries -- 10 ASEAN member states and its eight dialogue partners on Monday began a joint exercise on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief here in Thailand.

During the seven-day exercise, or the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting-Plus Military Medicine-Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Joint Exercise (AM-HEx 2016), troops from different countries are set to work together to offer assistance to a certain country that just suffered a tsunami, earthquake and other natural disasters.

The exercise consists of command post exercise and integration trainings, while these multinational forces are set to work together in medical support, airlift, maritime search and rescue and so on.

Prawit Wongsuwan, Thai deputy prime minister and minister of defense, held opening ceremony of the exercise, which he said "is considered an important milestone of defense cooperation under the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) mechanism."

Prawit also said the exercise is aimed to foster cooperation and to share experience, information, and skills among military medics of ASEAN member states and those dialogue partners, including China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, India, Russia and United States.

"China attached great importance to this exercise, as we have sent 120 troops to take part in land operations and 245 troops to maritime operations, "said Chen Zhaohai,deputy commander of the Chinese People's Liberation Army(PLA)'s Southern Theater Command, after the ceremony, adding that the number of Chinese troops is the largest in the exercise, except for the host country Thailand.

Chen also said the joint exercise will strengthen trust between Chinese troops and troops from other participant countries as well as foster capacities for dealing with natural disasters together.

Besides troops, China also sent an amphibious landing ship, the Changbaishan, and several helicopters to join in the exercise. Endite