JAKARTA, May 10 -- According to the annual training plan, a far-sea training taskforce composed of the guided-missile frigates Liuzhou and Suqian from the navy under the Chinese PLA Southern Theater Command held a joint maritime training exercise with the Indonesian Navy in the waters near Jakarta, Indonesia on the morning of May 8, local time.

The guided-missile frigate Usman Harun and missile craft Halasan from the Indonesian Navy participated in the drill. Participating warships from both sides took turns to act as the commanding ship in the drill.

Before the drill kicked off, the Chinese naval ships sounded the siren in mourning and the sailors manned the rail to express their deep condolences for the victims of the sunken Indonesian Navy’s submarine Nanggala-402.

The training subjects arranged in this joint drill included ship-to-ship communication, joint search and rescue, and ship formation movements. In the ship-to-shipcommunication drill, the participating ships exercised the flashing light signalling and VHF (Very High Frequency) communication. The drill went smoothly and efficiently, demonstrating the well-trained communication capabilities of both parties.

During the joint search and rescue drill, frigate Liuzhou randomly dropped dummies after arriving at the drilling area, setting up the scenario of nearby merchant ship crews falling into the water. The Indonesian naval frigate Usman Harun then commanded the other two participating ships to advance to their respective searching areas . The lookout on the Chinese frigate Suqian spotted the "persons in the water" first and spared no time to report to the commanding ship of the drill. After receiving the order of rescue sent by the commanding ship from the Indonesian Navy, a jolly boat with sailors onboard dropped from the frigate Suqian went full steam ahead for the rescue, and the “person in the water” was successfully picked up. .

The following formation movement drill was commanded by the Chinese naval frigate Liuzhou. The participating ships carried out a variety of formation changes from the initial double-column formation. The two sides maintained close communication and cooperation throughtout the drill.

Mei Guoqiang, a commanding officer of the Chinese naval far-sea training taskforce, told PLA Daily that, by holding the joint training exercise, the two navies further improved the coordination between the warships of both sides, promoted professional exchanges and enhanced mutual trust and cooperation, and demonstrated together their concrete actions to safeguard regional peace and stability and to promote the building of a maritime community with a shared future.