China, Thailand start joint naval training in Gulf of Thailand

China and Thailand started the week-long "Blue Strike-2023" joint naval training in the Gulf of Thailand on Sunday.

About 400 Chinese and Thai troops attended the opening ceremony held at a military port in Sattahip District in southern Thailand.

The joint training will cover sniping tactics, jungle survival, maritime search and rescue, and cross-deck helicopter landing.

The training aims to improve training levels and coordination abilities of the participating troops, enhance practical cooperation between the two navies, and strengthen their capabilities of jointly addressing regional security threats, according to the Chinese Ministry of National Defense.

At the ceremony, representatives from both sides made speeches, and members of the joint training command group watched a display of small arms and light weapons.

The joint training will mainly cover marine troops exercises and naval vessel operations, with the participating marine troops conducting drills including urban combat operations, light weapons shooting and humanitarian relief, and with the naval vessels conducting drills including maritime replenishment, maneuver operations, helicopter landing certification and joint anti-submarine warfare.

"In the next few days, we will hold joint training with marine troops from Thailand on 13 subjects, such as small tactics, urban combat operations and humanitarian relief. And we will hold deep-going joint training exchange with the Thai side on helicopter skid, diving and sniping tactics," said Gao Xin, staff officer of the participating Chinese land detachment.

The Chinese naval forces arrived Thursday afternoon and later held a vessel open day activity at the Sattahip Port. More than 400 representatives of Chinese-funded institutions and overseas Chinese representatives visited the Chinese vessels.

The Blue Strike series began in 2010. The badge of this joint training was especially designed to showcase the main forces participating in the joint training, featuring symbols of amphibious warfare ships, amphibious armored cars and carrier-based helicopters.