By Zhang Wenwen and Cheng Yongliang
The opening ceremony of US-China Disaster Management Exchange 2018 (Photo by Hu He)
BEIJING, Nov. 15 (ChinaMil) -- The opening ceremony of the US-China Disaster Management Exchange 2018 was held at an engineering brigade of the army under the Chinese PLA Eastern Theater Command on Wednesday morning.
The Chinese side sent more than 150 people, helicopters, drones, engineering rescue and medical rescue equipment to the exchange, and the US side sent more than 90 people, light engineering and medical rescue equipment to the exchange.
Taking an earthquake disaster in the third country as the background, the Chinese and US militaries will coordinate with each other in the third country to organize the disaster relief and the massive evacuation of affected people. The event consists of an expert academic discussion, a table-top exchange, a practical field training and HA/DR topic demonstration. Exchange activities between officers and soldiers of the two armies will also be held during the event.
Prior to the event, military and civilian experts from both sides conducted in-depth discussions on topics such as international humanitarian relief operations, disaster management and evacuation planning.
The two sides will exercise various subjects in the following days. In the field training part, the two sides will focus on the disaster assessment, search and rescue, first aid and evacuation management. And the HA/DR topic demonstration part involves water rescue operations in use of helicopters and boats, as well as emergency transfer and rescue for drowning personnel, etc.
In addition, the army under the Chinese PLA Eastern Theater Command and the United States Army Pacific both will send military observers to the exchange.