China to join demining exercise in Russia: spokesperson

BEIJING, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese People's Liberation Army will send troops to Russia to participate in a field training exercise for demining, a defense spokesperson said on Friday.

The field training exercise of the Experts' Working Group (EWG) on Humanitarian Mine Action under the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) will take place from Sept. 7 to 12, Jiang Bin, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense, said at a media conference.

Set against the scenario of multinational armed forces conducting joint humanitarian clearance operations in mixed-explosive-contaminated areas, the exercise will mainly involve training on battlefield area clearance, mechanical demining, mine detection dog deployment, and clearance of improvised explosive devices, he said.

It will help promote experience sharing and capacity building in mine action among participating countries and enhance regional peace and stability, he added.

The ADMM-Plus is a platform for ASEAN and its eight dialogue partners, namely Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Russia and the United States, to strengthen security and defense cooperation for peace, stability and development in the region. The inaugural ADMM-Plus was convened in 2010.

The ADMM-Plus currently focuses on seven areas of practical cooperation, namely maritime security, counter-terrorism, humanitarian assistance and disaster management, peacekeeping operations, military medicine, humanitarian mine action and cybersecurity. EWGs have been established to facilitate cooperation in these areas. Enditem