KUALA LUMPUR, May 26 -- Chinese State Councilor Wang Yong has met with Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin in Alor Setar, capital of Malaysia's state of Kedah, vowing to promote bilateral ties.

During their meeting on Monday, Wang and Muhyiddin spoke highly of the smooth development of China-Malaysia relations, and expressed the belief that the two countries'close cooperation in the preparation and hosting of the exercises would further enhance bilateral ties and China-ASEANrelations.

The meeting was held before they attended the opening ceremony of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) Disaster Relief Exercises (DiREx) 2015 co-chaired by China and Malaysia later on Monday.

At the opening ceremony, Wang spoke highly of the efforts made by the ARF to promote regional disaster relief cooperation. He briefly introduced the achievements and contributions made by the Chinese government in disaster prevention and mitigation as well as promoting regional disaster relief cooperation.

Wang said that non-traditional security issues such as the natural disasters were becoming increasingly salient, which posed severe threats to the stability and development of the Asia- Pacific region.

The Chinese government attaches great attention to regional cooperation in disaster prevention and mitigation, and is willing to promote communication and cooperation with all parties in setting up disaster relief mechanism of cooperation which meets the needs of the Asia-Pacific region, he added.

Muhyiddin said in his speech that Malaysia appreciates the positive role played by China in promoting regional security cooperation, and thanked the Chinese side for its support to Malaysia in preparing and hosting the disaster relief exercise.

He expressed the hope that the exercise would help strengthen the capability building of ASEAN in disaster management and boost cooperation between its members in jointly reacting to natural disasters.

Founded in 1994, the ARF is a regional forum for security dialogue in Asia. The forum groups 27 members including 10 ASEAN nations and their dialogue partners.