Nov 19, 2006, 14:05 GMT
Beijing - The United States and China held a joint search and rescue exercise on Sunday in the South China Sea involving a Chinese guided missile destroyer and a fuel tanker as well as American naval ships, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported.
The exercise was for both navies to jointly locate a ship in danger and salvage it. The two sides commanded different stages of the exercise, Xinhua said.
The Chinese side took charge of the communications and searching stage, while the US Navy commanded vessels of the two countries to conduct the rescue.
'In the exercises, the two navies demonstrated very good military skills and strong cooperative spirits,' Gu Wengen, the commander of the South China Sea fleet, was quoted as saying.
The event was the second phase of the first joint Sino-American search and rescue exercise. The first was held last September in the waters off Hawaii.
Your Talkback on this Story