By Huang Panyue
ZHENGZHOU, Sept. 17 -- "This is a perfect joint exercise," said Brigadier Shahid Amir Afsar, Pakistan's Defense and Army Attaché to China, on September 15, after observing the UN peacekeeping field training exercise, Shared Destiny-2021.
The exercise, held in Queshan County of central China's Henan Province from Sept. 6 to 15, marked the first multinational peacekeeping exercise hosted by the Chinese military. In Brigadier Afsar's eyes, this exercise was an important milestone for the Chinese military and also an excellent opportunity for various participating militaries to promote exchanges and cooperation.
As he stated, the Shared Destiny-2021 exercise has demonstrated China’s concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind, and won the support of all participating countries. Every country involved has a common goal of safeguarding peace and stability. Especially when some regions across the world are still in wars or conflicts, the concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind is of great significance to the UN peacekeeping operations.
“I have been observing about the contributions made by the Chinese military to the UN peacekeeping operations. The Chinese peacekeepers in various UN peacekeeping mission areas have played a major role in mitigating local conflicts and stabilizing the situation,” said Brigadier Afsar. The Chinese military has always been a just force in defending world peace and development, and has made unremitting efforts and outstanding achievements in building a community with a shared future for mankind.
Brigadier Afsar added that the year 2021 marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Pakistan. China and Pakistan have shared weal and woe, and helped each other sincerely in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic since last year, with the ironclad friendship being further upgraded. Despite the ongoing epidemic, the Pakistani side insisted on sending military personnel to participate in the exercise in China, which fully demonstrates the profound friendship and will further strengthen the relationship between the Chinese and Pakistani armed forces.
“Long live Pak-China friendship!” said BG. Afsar in fluent Chinese during the exclusive interview.
As for the Shared Destiny-2021, BG. Afsar said that the lifelike scenario made people feel like they were in a real peacekeeping mission area. All the participating troops performed very well, fully demonstrating the results of the joint training some time ago.
He also pointed out that during this exercise, China shared actual combat experience in mission areas including Mali, which was much valuable to the Pakistani military members. It is hoped that the two sides could carry out exchanges and cooperation in more fields and at deeper levels.
“I hope that the ‘Shared Destiny’ exercises can be held in succession to get more militaries from other countries involved, where they can share peacekeeping experience and improve the ability to perform peacekeeping missions,” said BG. Afsar.