21th Chinese naval escort taskforce returns

Press release, Your Defence News

The 21st Chinese naval escort taskforce image from

The 21th Chinese naval escort taskforce, consisting of the guided-missile frigates Liuzhou, Sanya and the comprehensive supply ship Qinghaihu, successfully returned to a military port in Sanya on the morning of March 8, 2016, after completing 218-day missions and traveling nearly 90,000 nautical miles.

The escort taskforce left for the escort mission area on August 4, 2015. They have successfully escorted 36 batches of 65 domestic and international vessels and dealt with 12 batches of 56 suspicious ships.

The Chinese naval fleet has effectively safeguarded the security of the strategic channel and maintained the safety of both the escorted ships and the taskforce itself.

After escort missions, the Chinese naval taskforce successfully wrapped up visits to Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, Thailand and Cambodia.

The taskforce also participated in the International Fleet Review in India and held pragmatic exchanges with foreign militaries and carried out public diplomacy activities, demonstrating the Chinese Navy's achievements in modernization construction and excellent political and military quality of its officers and soldiers, and achieving goals of promoting the harmonious ocean concept, deepening mutual understanding and trust, consolidating and developing friendship.

During the escort missions, the Chinese naval taskforce had exchanges with commanding officers of the EU Combined Task Force 465, NATO Combined Task Force 508, the Republic of Korea (ROK) escort taskforce and other international escort taskforces.

The Chinese naval taskforce held joint anti-piracy drills with navies of the ROK and Denmark, as well as joint military drills with armed forces of the countries it visited.

For more information, please visit : http://eng.mod.gov.cn