Fang Fenghui holds talks with Greek counterpart

Fang Fenghui, member of China's Central Military Commission (CMC) and chief of general staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), held talks with Mikhail Kostarakos, the visiting chief of the National Defense General Staff of the Hellenic Armed Forces, in Beijing on the afternoon of July 7, 2014.

Fang Fenghui said that China and Greece, as the two countries with ancient civilization, enjoy a long-standing traditional friendship and are good partners of mutual support and mutual trust.

He added that in recent years, the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries has been developing with good momentum, creating a favorable condition for the development of the relations between the two militaries.

He also said that the Chinese military attaches high importance to developing the relations with the Hellenic military and is willing to make joint efforts with the Hellenic military to further strengthen strategic communication, deepen the exchanges in professional field, enhance the cooperation in personnel training, carry out maritime joint training, expand fields of cooperation, innovate and enrich forms and contents of cooperation, so as to push forward the relations between the two militaries through sincere, open and effective exchanges and cooperation.

Kostarakos said that the Hellenic military is willing to strengthen exchanges with the Chinese military in various fields, deepen the pragmatic cooperation in aspects including personnel training, anti-piracy and maritime shipping route safeguarding, actively develop the relations between the two militaries and jointly safeguard regional and world's peace and stability.

The two sides also exchanged views on such issues as national defense and army building as well as regional security situations.

Before the talks, Fang Fenghui held a welcome ceremony for Kostarakos and accompanied him to review the guard of honor of the three services of the PLA.