By Wang Xueyang and Zhang Dan
BEIJING, Nov.15 -- The Second China-Africa Peace and Security Forum Military Medicine Conference was held in Beijing via video link on November 14. Themed on "Role of Military in Responding to Public Health Emergencies", the meeting was attended by representatives and medical experts from the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the military health departments of 21 African countries.
In recent years, the China-Africa military medical cooperation has developed steadily, with fruitful results achieved in bilateral cooperation on fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, personnel training, capacity building, etc.
According to Chinese participants, the present COVID-19 pandemic situation still protracts with repeated rebounds, so China and Africa need to strengthen medical cooperation and jointly address challenges in the medical and health fields more than ever. China will continue to provide support and assistance for the public health prevention and control system, and capacity building of African military. In addition, they also introduced the experience, practices and scientific research achievements of the Chinese military in responding to public health emergencies.
Representatives of African countries made speeches on the construction of military medical and health system, building of response capacity to public health emergencies, and China-Africa military medical cooperation on the conference. "African and Chinese militaries should strengthen coordination and establish a multi-level cooperation framework to better respond to global public health emergencies," said a senior staff officer of the South African military health service.