September.15 (China Military News cited from chinamil.com.cn) -- At 5:00 a.m. on September 13, local time, the Chinese and Russian navies successfully rounded off their first joint escort with the release of 3 green signal flares by the "Zhoushan" warship of the Chinese PLA Navy and the "Admiral Tributes" warship of the Russian Navy respectively. This is the first open sea military operation other than war (MOOTW) jointly organized by the Chinese and Russian navies and has also created a new record in the number of escorted merchant ships in a single escort mission by the Chinese naval escort taskforce.

Wang Zhiguo (right), commanding officer of the Chinese naval escort taskforce

Through the porthole of the "Zhoushan" warship, the reporter saw that 18 escorted merchant ships lined up orderly at the sea and they blew whistle for 60 seconds together before separating to celebrate the victory of the first Sino-Russian joint naval escort.

Then, the shipboard helicopter on the "Admiral Tributes" warship took off to sent the "Certificate of Participating in Joint Naval Escort" signed by the commanding officers of the Chinese and Russian naval escort taskforces to the captain of each escorted merchant ship organized by the Russian side, while the Chinese naval escort taskforce would present the certificates to the escorted merchant ships organized by it via the ship-owning companies.

The national flags of China and Russia, as well as the flags of the Chinese and Russian navies, were printed above a pair of mighty hands on the certificate, implying that the officers and men of the two navies will hold up the ties of friendly cooperation in the spirit of peace and friendship.

Wang Zhiguo, commanding officer of the Chinese naval escort taskforce, said, "The total voyage of the joint escort was 568 nautical miles, the total navigational duration was 59 hours and 15 minutes and 18 merchant ships in total were escorted. During the escort, the Chinese and Russian sides organized such meaningful activities as setting sail ceremony, helicopter patrol, command right hand-over and intelligence exchange, successfully and smoothly accomplishing the joint escort mission."