BEIJING – The recently concluded Pak-China joint naval exercise ‘SeaGuardian’ demonstrated to the world the unshakable traditional friendshipbetween two all-weather friends and strategic cooperative partners,according to an article published by ‘China Military’ the PLA’s onlyofficial English-language news website.
The nine-day bilateral naval exercise code-named Sea Guardians-2020 heldnear Karachi was the 6th bilateral naval exercise between China andPakistan.
Based on multiple practical exchanges, the two navies have developed a setof methods of organizing and carrying out joint exercises on the sea, andtheir capability of organizing and commanding joint maritime operations hasbeen greatly improved, with a high level of coordination in commanding,communication, tactical moves and fire attacks.
The exercise included both traditional and non-traditional subjects. Inaddition to discussions, exchanges and demonstration during port training,there are up to 16 subjects in the maritime drill phase, featuring thelargest number, widest coverage and fastest pace of all bilateral jointexercises over the years.
Aiming to enhance the Chinese and Pakistani militaries’ capability ofjointly coping with maritime terrorism and crimes, the joint exercisedesigned realistic subjects commensurate with the weapon and equipmentperformance and technical and tactical level of the two navies.
Participating troops of both sides credited the exercise for improvingtheir training effects and methods.
Ten vessels of various types with the total tonnage of over 55,000 tonswere mobilized in the joint exercise, but they differed widely in technicalperformance.Meanwhile, the Chinese and Pakistani participating officers and soldiersfaced other difficulties such as language barriers, unsmooth communicationand poor meteorological and sea conditions.
However, they made rigorous preparations and coped with the obstaclesflexibly, not only accomplishing several highly demanding subjects, butalso ensuring the security and success of the exercise in general.
Both the Chinese and Pakistani sides demonstrated complete trust during theexercise, and all services, contingents, disciplines and departments of theparticipating troops held discussions and exchanges in a confident andcandid way.
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They also boarded their counterpart vessels to observe their tactics andpresentation, assigned observers to participate in each other’s vesselexercises, and exchanged weapons for shooting experience.
During the exercise, Chinese and Pakistani soldiers had friendlybasketball, football and tug of war competitions, organized deckreceptions, and presented souvenirs to each other.
The Chinese participating troops received warm welcome from the Pakistanihost, and were invited to visit the Mazar-e-Quaid, otherwise known as theNational Mausoleum, the tomb of the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad AliJannah, military museum, naval museum, and so on.
Before the exercise, the Chinese Ministry of National Defense held a pressconference to announce the dates and contents; and both sides proactivelyreleased exercise information and progress while it was in process.
When the participating vessels berthed at the port for rest andreplenishment, the Chinese side invited military officers, governmentofficials, overseas Chinese and representatives of Chinese organizations inPakistan to visit their vessels and take photos while onboard.
After the conclusion of the joint exercise, the guided-missile destroyerYinchuan (Hull 175), the guided-missile frigate Yuncheng (Hull 571) and thecomprehensive supply ship Weishanhu (Hull 887) switched to escort missionimmediately as the 34th escort contingent, heading to the Gulf of Aden toreplace the 33rd escort contingent and carry out a months-long escortmission.
