From November 13 to November 22, 2023, the 10-day "Peace and Friendship-2023" multinational joint exercise was held in Zhanjiang, Guangdong. This is the first time that this series of exercises has been held in China. More than 3,000 officers and soldiers from China, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam took "joint counter-terrorism and maintenance of maritime security military operations" as the subject, organized joint training of detachments, joint command exercises and anti-terrorism and anti-piracy actual exercises. All parties put into use a variety of new weapons and equipment on land, sea and air, and worked together to innovate urban anti-terrorism operations and maritime anti-terrorism and anti-piracy, joint air defense and other tactics, and explored and optimized the multinational joint counter-terrorism and maintenance of maritime security military operations process mechanism. This exercise is a concrete measure to implement the strategic consensus reached by President Xi Jinping and heads of state of various countries, and it is also a practical embodiment of the in-depth practice of the neighboring diplomacy concept of pro-sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness and the promotion of the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. During the exercise, a variety of cultural exchange activities such as sports competitions, literary evenings, and deck receptions were also held. After the exercise, all parties participating in the exercise gave high praise to the results and significance of the exercise.
“Peace and Friendship” series of exercises
It can be seen that the countries participating in this “Peace and Friendship” multinational joint military exercise have one thing in common. Except for China, all of them are ASEAN members, which clearly reflects that China is actively strengthening its relations with ASEAN countries. Moreover, from the development history of the “Peace and Friendship” series of exercises, it can be seen that this exercise is constantly expanding and improving in terms of troop size, subject setting, equipment investment, and organizational methods, which has deepened the mutual trust between the Chinese and relevant countries’ militaries and demonstrated the willingness and determination of regional countries to jointly maintain peace and stability.
The “Peace and Friendship” bilateral joint military exercise mechanism was first jointly initiated by China and Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur. The first session was held in 2014, and the two sides conducted a joint tabletop exercise for the first time. In 2015, the China-Malaysia joint military exercise and joint escort drill were launched in the central part of Malacca, marking the official debut of the "Peace and Friendship series of military exercises". At the end of 2016, the "Peace and Friendship-2016" China-Malaysia joint military exercise was held again in Malaysia. The "Peace and Friendship" series of military exercises became a regular practice. Thailand participated in this exercise as an observer.
In 2018, the "Peace and Friendship-2018" joint military exercise was held in Malaysia. Thailand officially joined. The exercise changed from bilateral to multilateral. A total of 1,225 officers and soldiers, 4 warships, 3 large transport aircraft and 3 helicopters from the three participating countries of China, Malaysia and Thailand participated in this joint exercise. This "Peace and Friendship-2023" joint exercise has expanded again, from China, Malaysia and Thailand to China, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and six other countries, with more than 3,000 troops participating in the exercise, the influence of the "Peace and Friendship" series of joint exercises is increasing, and it has become the largest bilateral joint military exercise between China and ASEAN countries.
In recent years, as the United States has intensified its confrontation with China in the military field, it has frequently roamed in the South China Sea with a group of so-called "allies", and even held military exercises to show off its military power. This has no effect on China, but has made other Southeast Asian countries feel a real security threat. This has also become a catalyst for the strengthening of relations between China and ASEAN countries. A series of normalized cooperative exercises such as the China-Cambodia "Golden Dragon-2023" joint exercise, the China-Laos "Friendship Shield-2023" joint exercise, and the "China-Singapore Cooperation-2023" maritime joint exercise have accelerated the military interaction between China and ASEAN countries in multilateral fields, and also prompted the " The expansion of the "Peace and Friendship" series of joint military exercises.
"Peace and Friendship-2023"
"Peace and Friendship-2023" multinational joint exercise has set a new record in terms of the number of participating countries and the scale of participating troops. In this exercise, the armed forces of the participating countries discussed the difficult issues of future urban anti-terrorism operations around the topic of "Joint Counter-Terrorism and Maintenance of Maritime Security Military Operations", and practiced subjects such as maritime anti-terrorism and anti-piracy, and joint air defense. All parties took the initiative to connect training plans, exchange skills with each other, and review and summarize experiences. The participating officers and soldiers deepened their understanding and enhanced friendship in the exchanges.
The choice of topics for this exercise is very interesting, maritime anti-terrorism and anti-piracy. Counter-terrorism is relatively routine. Joint military exercises of many countries usually have joint counter-terrorism subjects, but strengthening anti-piracy capabilities is relatively rare. There must be a clear reason to put anti-piracy in the subject of this joint exercise.
When it comes to pirates, most people’s first reaction is probably the Somali pirates operating in the Gulf of Aden. Because it is located on a major transportation route and the situation in neighboring countries such as Somalia is unstable, pirate activities here were once quite rampant, forcing countries to send warships for armed escort. What many people don’t know is that pirate activities in the Asia-Pacific region are also a problem that cannot be ignored, especially near the Strait of Malacca. In 2022, 55 pirate robberies were reported in the Strait of Malacca. In August last year, there were even 4 pirate robberies in the Strait of Malacca within 3 days.
According to international treaties, the management of the Strait of Malacca should be the responsibility of Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. In theory, these three countries should bear the main responsibility for combating nearby pirates. However, although Singapore has developed economic conditions, its strength is very limited, and the execution of Malaysia and Indonesia is not satisfactory. Due to the importance of the Strait of Malacca, other countries around it cannot turn a blind eye to the situation here, which explains why the "Peace and Friendship-2023" multinational joint exercise will specifically include anti-piracy subjects.
Multinational joint exercise content
The "Peace and Friendship-2023" multinational joint exercise is divided into two major parts: land and sea. The participating countries use joint forces, integrate the strength of sea, land and air task forces, and build a multi-level command system. The multinational joint task force command is the main body to judge the battlefield situation, organize combat planning, command troop actions, and jointly fight "terrorists" on multiple battlefields at sea, land and air. The joint exercise first conducts adaptive training and then conducts live-fire exercises.
During the adaptive training phase, the participating armies of the six countries conducted airborne assault, special sniping, street search, armed escort, and grappling training in accordance with the country-specific grouping and subject-by-subject rotation. The training subjects were closely linked to the positioning of anti-terrorism operations and were carried out in an orderly manner around the topic of "joint anti-terrorism". For example, the street search was divided into three contents: search formation, search method, and house assault. The participating personnel of various countries were mixed in training to learn each other’s tactical actions and combat methods, and jointly improve the quality and effectiveness of training.
The joint training on land ended with a full-process and full-element live-fire exercise. The exercise was based on urban anti-terrorism and was divided into three stages: reconnaissance and blockade, infiltration and fragmentation, and joint encirclement and suppression. It comprehensively tested the results of the joint training of the participating officers and soldiers of the six countries. It is worth mentioning that the participating officers and soldiers of various countries integrated a variety of new equipment into key operations such as reconnaissance, control, assault, and fighting, effectively improving the joint anti-terrorism combat capabilities. For example, unmanned reconnaissance equipment is used to accurately obtain target information, guide precision strikes, and destroy various targets. At the same time, officers and soldiers also use portable drone reconnaissance and countermeasure systems to effectively identify and locate suspicious targets, and then implement operations such as expulsion, no-fly and interference strikes. In addition, new equipment such as wall-penetrating radars were also unveiled, and their actual combat effectiveness was further tested.
The maritime exercise consists of multi-course training at the port and shore and live-fire exercises at sea. The former was conducted in a military port in Zhanjiang, and joint training was carried out around the armed rescue course. Officers and soldiers from various countries conducted in-depth exchanges on details such as handling procedures, identity recognition, and tactical actions, and also conducted ship damage control training.
In a ship damage control comprehensive training site of the Southern Theater Command Navy, a raging fire suddenly broke out in the cabin, the cabin temperature rose sharply, and the rapid damage control alarm sounded. The damage control team members of the "Bayannur" ship who were demonstrating damage control operations quickly put on fireproof clothing, picked up the hose, rushed to the fire scene fully armed, and "strongly attacked" the fire source. Soon, the fire was under control. The officers and soldiers from Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam who were watching the scene saw that the Chinese damage control team members reacted quickly and moved quickly, and praised them for their well-trained training.
After observing the Chinese damage control exercise, the naval officers and soldiers of China and Vietnam also formed a mixed formation to conduct ship plugging training. The differences in plugging methods and tools used in daily training of the two navies became a considerable obstacle in this training. Even so, they overcame the difficulties in language communication, flexibly used the tools in their hands, and worked together to complete the task despite the continuous gushing of water. They also put forward valuable suggestions on how to increase the difficulty of joint damage control training at sea in the future.
The anti-piracy live-fire exercise of the multinational joint exercise "Peace and Friendship-2023" was carried out in a certain sea area. The participating forces included the Chinese Navy missile destroyer "Nanning", the missile frigates "Bayannur" and "Suqian", the comprehensive supply ship "Weishanhu"; the Malaysian Navy missile frigate "Selangor"; the Vietnamese Navy missile frigate "Guangzhong", a total of six warships, with the "Weishanhu" supply ship acting as the hijacked merchant ship.
After receiving the distress signal sent by the "hijacked merchant ship", each ship locked the target position almost at the same time, and the "Bayannur" ship immediately broke away from the formation and moved forward at high speed to attack the "pirate" mother ship. The "Nanning", "Selangor" and "Guangzhong" cooperated tacitly, flexibly adjusted their positions, and surrounded the "hijacked freighter" from different directions.
Immediately afterwards, the joint command issued an armed rescue order. The fully armed special forces took the "Nanning" ship’s small boat and maneuvered at high speed to the simulated hijacked merchant ship. They used climbing tools to quickly board the ship and formed a combat formation to assault the cabin. They made the final struggle in the cabin-by-cabin search. After the special forces approached the cabin door, they used explosive bombs to carry out the assault. All the "pirates" were subdued and the control of the cabin was successfully regained.
Afterwards, the special forces reorganized and quickly implemented a dragnet-style Check to ensure that no fish slip through the net. After ensuring safety, the trapped crew members evacuated in an orderly manner from the safety cabin, and the armed rescue exercise ended successfully. After the exercise, Chinese and foreign officers and soldiers had in-depth exchanges on details such as ship coordination, ship-borne helicopter use, and crew evacuation methods in maritime armed rescue operations.
Jointly maintain regional peace
Come for friendship, come for peace. The "Peace and Friendship-2023" multinational joint exercise held in my country this time, in addition to conducting the main exercise of "joint counter-terrorism" with officers and soldiers of multiple participating countries, is also an opportunity to convey China’s consistent peace concept on the "South China Sea" issue to ASEAN countries, and deepen "military mutual trust" with participating countries. After all, among the countries participating in this exercise, Vietnam and Malaysia are countries that have different views on the South China Sea with China. And through joint training between the military, it can be effectively Deepening communication and understanding is also an opportunity to reduce friction and misjudgment among countries on the South China Sea issue in the future.
In addition, the focus of this joint exercise is on the "anti-terrorism and anti-piracy" issue, which is very important to all participating countries, and it is also very targeted. After all, in the vast waters from the South China Sea to the Strait of Malacca, there are still factors that threaten the maritime economic security of various countries. The Chinese Navy has been sending warships to the Gulf of Aden for many years to perform merchant ship escort missions, and has accumulated a lot of experience in responding to and handling maritime emergencies. It is entirely possible to fully communicate with the officers and soldiers of participating countries through joint exercises to help them enhance their ability to respond to such incidents.
In general, the "Peace and Friendship-2023" multinational joint exercise deepened the military mutual trust between China and ASEAN countries, promoted the understanding between the militaries of various countries, and reduced possible friction and misjudgment. At the same time, it also reflects that China’s concept of peaceful development in Southeast Asia has been recognized and responded to by various countries, and demonstrated the determination and will of all parties involved in the exercise to jointly maintain regional peace and stability.
