China’s military will provide training for Syrian armed forces, a spokesman for Beijing’s defense ministry says.
“The Chinese military will provide the Syrian side with medical and nursing professional training,” defence ministry spokesman Wu Qian tells reporters at a monthly briefing.
The training will take place in China, he adds, and is intended “to ease the humanitarian crisis in Syria.”
Beijing is a longstanding backer of the Syrian government of Bashar Assad, which has engaged in a bloody war that has left more than 290,000 people dead and displaced millions since it began in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government demonstrations.
Bashar Assad speaks to China’s CCTV in Damascus, September 23, 2013. (photo credit: AP Photo/SANA)
Last week senior Chinese military official Guan Youfei met with Syria’s defence minister in Damascus and said he wanted closer military ties with the Syrian government, state media reported.
The Chinese military has already provided Syrian authorities with medical equipment and medicines “to help reduce the humanitarian suffering of the Syrian people,” Wu said.
— AFP
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