CHONBURI - The second joint exercise of ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting Plus (ADMM-PLUS) on humanitarian aid, disaster relief and military medicine (AM-HEx 2016) concluded on Friday. China, sending a large delegation, took part in the exercise.

Troops from participant countries, including 10 ASEAN members and its 8 dialogue partners, cooperated in the exercise and showed capability of dealing non-traditional security threats, said Somsak Roongsita, chief deputy director-general of the office of policy and planning of Thai ministry of defense.

China attached great importance to the exercise as it sent a delegation of 365 troops, which is the largest delegation except for the host country, said Rear Admiral Li Ji, deputy director of international military cooperation office of the Chinese ministry of national defense.

Chinese engineer, medical, army aviation, and maritime detachments completed their missions in the exercise respectively, said Li.

During the exercise, 50 engineering soldiers from the People's Liberation Army (PLA) 42nd Group Army participated in search and rescue operations in quarantine areas, and rescue operations in collapsed buildings.

As for the Chinese medical detachment, it was made up of a total of 40 persons, most of whom were from the PLA Air Force General Hospital. They successively treated about 50 people with moderate to severe wounds, and conducted 14 emergency surgical operations, including joint surgical operations conducted with Thai and Russian army doctors.

This is the first showcase of the medical service force of the Chinese Air Force on the international military stage, and the Chinese medical detachment is the only medical detachment that set up a second-class field hospital besides the host country Thailand.

Li also said that the joint exercise has strengthened trust between Chinese troops and troops from other participant countries and laid a solid foundation for future cooperation between participant countries in disaster relief.