CHONBURI, Thailand, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Troops from 18 countries -- 10 ASEAN member states and its eight dialogue partners on Monday began a joint exercise on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief here in Thailand.
During the seven-day exercise, or the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting-Plus Military Medicine-Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Joint Exercise (AM-HEx 2016), troops from different countries are set to work together to offer assistance to a certain country that just suffered a tsunami, earthquake and other natural disasters.
The exercise consists of command post exercise and integration trainings, while these multinational forces are set to work together in medical support, airlift, maritime search and rescue and so on.
Prawit Wongsuwan, Thai deputy prime minister and minister of defense, held opening ceremony of the exercise, which he said "is considered an important milestone of defense cooperation under the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) mechanism."
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