China, NZ eye closer bilateral military cooperation

China is willing to make joint efforts with the New Zealand to create a new situation of the friendly cooperation between the militaries of the two countries, a senior Chinese officer said yesterday in Beijing.

Zhao Keshi, member of the Central Military Commission (CMC) of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and director of the General Logistics Department (GLD) of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), made the remarks when meeting with Peter James Stockwell, the visiting chief of New Zealand Air Force, in Beijing yesterday afternoon.

Zhao Keshi said that the military-to-military relations of the two countries have maintained a good momentum of development against the background of the positive development of the relations between China and New Zealand, as evidenced by frequent high-level reciprocal visits, smooth operation of the strategic dialogue mechanism, and extensive exchanges and cooperation in such fields as combat training, academic education, and humanitarian assistance and disaster reduction.

China is willing to work together with New Zealand to further enhance the cooperation between the Chinese People's Liberation Army and the New Zealand Defense Force, said Zhao Keshi.

Stockwell expressed that the high-level military reciprocal visits have promoted the friendship between the two militaries. He hoped that his visit to China could be conducive to building even closer friendly cooperative relations between the two militaries, especially the relations between the air forces of the two countries.