Chinese Navy commander meets with Australian counterpart

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Chinese Navy commander meets with Australian counterpart

(China Military Online) 08:28, August 23, 2013

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BEIJING, August 22 (ChinaMil) -- Chinese Navy expects to enhance cooperation with Australian Navy in various fields, a senior military official said yesterday in Beijing.

Wu Shengli, member of the Central Military Commission (CMC) of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and commander of the Navy of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLAN), met with Vice Admiral Raymond Griggs, the visiting chief of the Royal Australian Navy, in Beijing on the afternoon of August 21, 2013.

Wu Shengli said that as important countries in the Asia-Pacific region, China and Australia share broad common interests in maintaining regional stability and promoting common development.

In recent years, the Chinese and Australian navies have been maintaining good momentum of development and have witnessed increasingly close exchanges, as evidenced by good communication and cooperation in maintaining maritime security, frequent high-level reciprocal visits, constantly deepened exchanges and cooperation in professional fields, and especially fruitful pragmatic cooperation between the two navies in such fields as reciprocal visits of warships and delegations, joint drill and training as well as communication and exchange between the Chinese and Australian naval escort taskforces, Wu said.

Wu Shengli expressed that developing lasting relations between the two navies featuring mutual trust and win-win cooperation is of great significance for China and Australia to jointly respond to security challenges, deepen strategic connotations of the two countries and the two militaries, and safeguard national strategic interests.

Wu Shengli expected that the two navies will further enhance exchanges and cooperation in such fields as reciprocal visits of high-ranking officers and warships, and exchanges among young officers and academies.

Wu Shengli also invited his Australian counterpart and Australian naval warships to attend the Western Pacific Naval Symposium and international maritime parade activities to be held in 2014 in Qingdao, a port city in east China's Shandong province.

Raymond Griggs expressed that the Australian side attaches great importance to its relations with China, and hopes to take this visit as an opportunity to further deepen exchanges and strengthen cooperation in multilateral activities between the two navies while constantly pushing forward the bilateral relations.

During his stay in China, Raymond Griggs and his party will also visit the South China Sea Fleet and the Marine Corps Academy and warships of the PLAN.

（Editor：YanMeng、Yao Chun）