Chinese and Malaysian armed forces began a joint exercise on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief on November 22 in the Selangor state of Malaysia.
Zulkifeli Bin Mohd Zin, chief of the Malaysian defense force said that the joint exercise was held on the occasion that the Asian-Pacific region experienced 160 times of natural and man-made disasters since 2015, which claimed more than 16,000 lives and economic losses of over 45 billion USD.
He added this activity would afford greater synchronization and stronger awareness in multilateral initiatives, which is an important factor to the success of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations.
Earlier, the joint exercise “Peace and Friendship”, the first of its kind between the two countries, took place in 2014 Paya Indah Wetlands, Selangor, with the participation of 410 soldiers from Malaysia and 195 soldiers from the PLA.
