BEIJING: (APP) China's military will provide training for Syrian armed forces, a spokesman for Beijing's defence ministry said Thursday, adding it would take place on Chinese soil.
Last week senior Chinese military official Guan Youfei met with Syria's defence minister in Damascus and said he wanted closer military ties with the Syrian government, state media reported.
"The Chinese military will provide the Syrian side with medical and nursing professional training," defence ministry spokesman Wu Qian told reporters at a monthly briefing.
The training would take place in China, he added, and was intended "to ease the humanitarian crisis in Syria".
The Chinese military has already provided Syrian authorities with medical equipment and medicines "to help reduce the humanitarian suffering of the Syrian people", Wu said.
"For a long period of time, China and Syria have helped each other. And China has been pushing for a political solution of the Syrian conflict and we have always supported the independence of Syria," he added.