PLA Navy deepens cooperation with other countries

Since its first naval escort mission four years ago, the Navy of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has carried out extensive and in-depth cooperation and exchanges with the naval escort forces of various countries through varied means including intelligence information sharing, mutual visits, joint naval drills and international naval escort seminar, in a bid to uplift the naval escort efficiency and ensure the complete safety of escorted ships.

The escort taskforces of the Chinese PLA Navy have set up an effective information network with over 50 warships from more than 20 countries and organizations through information resource sharing in the Gulf of Aden and the waters off the Somali coast. They also specially set up email boxes on the Internet to initiate hotline connections with navies and merchant ships from various countries and send circulars through their online mailbox and radio stations about suspected ships' activities they mastered.

The Chinese naval escort missions have opened a new window for various countries in the world to observe China and understand the Chinese military. Over the past four years, the naval escort taskforces of the Chinese PLA Navy have been focusing on jointly implementing the international obligations of ensuring the safety of maritime transportation channels, jointly pushing forward the building of harmonious oceans and strengthening the exchange and pragmatic cooperation with the escort navies from different countries. For example, they have successively established the anti-piracy information sharing mechanism and commander meeting mechanism with the 151 Taskforce of the U.S., the 465 Taskforce of the European Union and the 508 Taskforce of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and conducted joint naval escorts and joint naval drills with the naval escort warships from Russia, Republic of Korea (ROK) and the U.S., etc.

The PLA Navy initiated and held the International Naval Escort Seminar on February 23, 2012 and nearly 100 delegates from various countries and organizations actively participated in the seminar. Commander Caroline Kanya, legal adviser of the multinational naval forces, said sincerely in her speech that they are grateful to China for holding the seminar and hope that China continues to set up such a platform for in-depth exchange and cooperation.