ASEAN, China to join humanitarian, disaster relief exercises

After a heavy rain in Myanmar (Photo: AFP)

Hanoi (VNA) – The Chinese army will send troops to Yogyakarta, Indonesia, to participate in the live exercises held by the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) Experts' Working Group (EWG) of the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) from October 14 -21.

Speaking at a press conference on October 13, Spokesman of the Chinese Ministry of National Defence Zhang Xiaogang said the exercise will be organised in the form of mixed teams, and will mainly carry out table-top and live exercises on humanitarian relief and disaster reduction in the context of major natural disasters, and conduct academic discussions and exchanges in related fields.

He said since the beginning of this year, the Chinese army has actively carried out the Global Security Initiative, participated in the ADMM-Plus EWG on Humanitarian Mine Action (HMA), peacekeeping and counter-terrorism live exercises, as well as the HADR exercise of Cobra Gold 2023, continuously deepening the practical cooperation under the ADMM-Plus mechanism./.