A hospital ship of the Vietnam People’s Army left Cam Ranh port in the central coastal province of Khanh Hoa on March 25 to join the Komodo multilateral naval exercise in Indonesia.

The HQ-561 is expected to arrive at Indonesia’s Batam island on March 28.

The exercise, themed “ASEAN Cooperation Navy for Stability”, will be held from March 29 to April 3, focusing on naval humanitarian aid and disaster relief activities by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Russia, China, Japan, India, and the US.

It aims to build mutual trust and realise initiatives agreed upon between ASEAN and ASEAN plus countries.

The exercise will help boost the cooperation and maintain the bloc’s central role in disaster relief work and security of the region.-VNA