110 Chinese soldiers to attend ASEAN's drill

BEIJING - China will send 110 soldiers and officers to take part in a joint humanitarian drill held by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Defense Ministers' Meeting Plus in Brunei next month.

The Chinese participants will include staff officers as well as engineers and medics, Ministry of National Defense spokesman Geng Yansheng said at a regular ministry briefing on Thursday.

A Chinese naval hospital ship will also visit Brunei for the exercise, Geng said.

The drill is scheduled to run from June 17 to 21. It will include humanitarian research and rescue, disaster relief and medical treatment operations based on the scenario of a typhoon and subsequent flooding and mudslides.

Practices for road and bridge repair, material distribution and epidemic prevention will also be included.

The joint drill will be held by ASEAN members and eight partners -- Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, the Republic of Korea and the United States.

"We believe this drill will help to enhance pragmatic cooperation in disaster rescue and military medicine under the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting Plus mechanism and improve the members' capability to jointly deal with unconventional security challenges," Geng said.