China, U.S. to conduct humanitarian assistance and disaster reduction joint drill

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China, U.S. to conduct humanitarian assistance and disaster reduction joint drill

(China Military Online) 09:32, November 13, 2013

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HAWAII, November 12 (ChinaMil) -- The detachment of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) to attend the first joint actual-troop drill of the China-U.S. humanitarian assistance and disaster reduction arrived at the U.S. Bellows barracks in Oahu Island, Hawaii, at 10:00, local time, on November 10, 2013.

Prior to this, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) of the People's Republic of China (PRC) announced that the Chinese military and the U.S. military will hold the first humanitarian assistance and disaster reduction joint actual-troop drill in Hawaii from November 12 to 14 in accordance with the annual exchange plan made between the two sides. The drill will include 3 subjects, namely, the equipment exhibition, skills exchange and joint operations.

According to the briefing, the participating actual-troop detachment on the Chinese side consists of 26 people chosen basically from the engineering regiment under the 14th Combined Corps of the Army of the PLA (PLAA) and the Kunming General Hospital under the Chengdu Military Area Command (MAC) of the PLA.

The drill is postulated in the background of a third country which suffers from considerable personnel casualties caused by violent earthquake and asks both China and the U.S. to dispatch professional forces to participate in the rescue. The participating personnel of both sides will jointly organize the drill on such subjects as life search, narrow-passage and high-altitude rescues, medical rescues and so on.

In addition to actual-troop drill, the two sides will hold seminars of exchange and tabletop exercise.

The cooperation mechanism of the China-U.S. humanitarian assistance and disaster reduction was initiated in 1997 and has ever held eight seminars of exchange.

The first tabletop exercise of the China-U.S. humanitarian assistance and disaster reduction was held by the two sides in 2012, and this is the first time for the two militaries to hold a joint actual-troop drill under the same mechanism.

"The communication between the U.S. military and the Chinese military will help improving mutual understanding and bring about transparency to a certain degree, which will improve mutual trust and avoid misjudgment", Admiral Samuel J. Locklear, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command in charge of the military affairs in the Asia-Pacific region, expressed in Washington D.C. on November 5, 2013.

The Chinese and the U.S. militaries have carried out frequent dialogues since the beginning of 2013, seeing Chang Wanquan, minister of national defense of the People's Republic of China (PRC), and Wu Shengli, commander of the Navy of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLAN), successively visiting the U.S. while Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. joint chiefs of staff, and Gen. Mark A. Welsh, chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, doing the same to China.

According to the consensus achieved prior to this, China and the U.S. will continue to enhance high-level reciprocal visits, including the visit of the chief of general staff of the PLA to the U.S. in 2014 and the visits of the U.S. Secretary of Defense and Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) to China in the same year.

In addition to high-level reciprocal visits, China and the U.S. have expanded pragmatic cooperation in such fields as joint exercises and drills and the like.

In August of 2013, the 14th escort taskforce of the PLAN held a China-U.S. maritime joint anti-piracy drill with the U.S. Navy's guided missile destroyer "Mason", which was performing missions in the waters off the Gulf of Aden.

In September of 2013, the No 113 taskforce under the PLAN visited Hawaii and held maritime joint search and rescue exercise with the U.S. Navy. During the exercise, the two sides sent liaison officers and observers to each other's ships.