The Peace Train medical team of Chinese People's Libration Army (PLA) is welcomed by the Lao People's Armed Forces at the airport in Vientiane, Laos, Aug. 15, 2019. The "Peace Train-2019" China-Laos humanitarian and medical joint rescue exercise kicked off in Lao capital Vientiane since Thursday. (Peace Train medical team/Handout via Xinhua)
VIENTIANE, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- The "Peace Train-2019" China-Laos humanitarian and medical joint rescue exercise has kicked off in Lao capital Vientiane since Thursday.
Senior Colonel Song Yu, the officer with the Health Bureau of the Logistic Support Department of the Central Military Commission of China, when addressing the opening ceremony held Thursday in Vientiane, said that China and Laos are friendly neighbors linked by mountains and rivers. The two armies share the responsibility and obligation to work together to cope with the threat of disasters, to jointly improve the ability of humanitarian and medical rescue, and protect and enhance the people's lives and health.
Song Yu said, this year's joint drill not only marks the new level of the cooperation between the Chinese and the Lao armies' health and logistic sectors, but also writes a new chapter of the friendly cooperation between the two countries and the two armies.
Director of the General Logistics Department of the Lao People's Armed Forces, Major General Vongkham Phommakone said that on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the founding of the comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation between Laos and China, the two armies jointly carry out the third edition of the Peace Train exercise, marking the deepening of the cooperation between the two armies' health and logistic sectors, and shows that the brand effect of "Peace Train" has become increasingly prominent.
Brigadier General Buasing Inthavong, head of the Health Bureau of the General Logistics Department of the Lao People's Armed Forces, said the Lao army and people are grateful to the Chinese PLA Peace Train medical team which rushed to flooded Attapeu to carry out rescue mission in last July after an under-construction hydropower plant's saddle dam collapsed there.
The team leader of the Peace Train medical team and deputy chief of the Xinqiao Hospital under the PLA Army Medical University, Ren Qian introduced that, this year's joint drill will further highlight the battlefield background simulation, professional features, and carry out in-depth joint operations to fully demonstrate the new level of collaboration between the two armies' health and logistic sectors.
The joint exercise is themed with humanitarian medical rescue of mudslide disasters, and around 500 army men will attend the drill till next Monday. Both sides will organize activities such as integrated training, desktop deduction, actual military exercises, exercise observation, evaluation and summary, focusing on the treatment of mass wounded and sick people on the scene of mudslides, on the transportation of the critically wounded and sick by road, waterway and air, and on the epidemic prevention, pathogen monitoring, joint command and other courses, so as to jointly improve the ability of emergency medical rescue coordination and cooperation.
