The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy hospital ship "Silk Road Ark" arrived in the port of Bridgetown, Barbados, on Saturday for a seven-day friendly visit and humanitarian medical service mission.
This is the second visit by a Chinese Navy hospital ship to Barbados since its hospital ship "Peace Ark" arrived in 2015.
Military and political officials from Barbados, staff members of the Chinese Embassy in Barbados, representatives of Chinese institutions in the Latin American country welcomed the ship at the pier.
The hospital ship "Silk Road Ark" departed from Quanzhou City of east China's Fujian Province on September 5 for the humanitarian medical service mission, known as Mission Harmony-2025, to the South Pacific and Latin America.
Mission Harmony-2025 marks the 11th iteration of Mission Harmony since 2010 and the first overseas mission for "Silk Road Ark," China's second domestically designed and constructed 10,000-ton-class standard ocean-going hospital ship.
The 220-day mission, the longest in the series, was scheduled to see the ship visit around a dozen nations, including Nauru, Fiji, Tonga, Mexico, Jamaica, Barbados, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and Papua New Guinea, to provide humanitarian medical services.
Chinese Naval hospital ship arrives in Barbados for friendly visit, medical aid
Impact of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran is pushing Gulf countries to revisit costly plans for pipelines to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, so that they can continue to export oil and gas, the Financial Times newspaper reported on Thursday.
"Officials and industry executives say new pipelines may be the only way to reduce Gulf countries' enduring vulnerability to disruption in the strait, even though such projects would be expensive, politically complex and take years to complete," said the report.
"Previous plans for pipelines across the region have repeatedly stalled, undone by high costs and complexity," it said.
The Strait of Hormuz is a vital global energy corridor bordered by Iran to the north.
Around a fifth of global liquefied natural gas supply passed through the Strait of Hormuz, which also carries about one quarter of global seaborne oil trade.
Israel and the United States launched joint attacks on Tehran and several other Iranian cities on Feb. 28, killing Iran's then Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, along with senior military commanders and civilians. Iran responded with waves of missile and drone strikes against Israel and U.S. assets in the Middle East, while tightening control over the Strait of Hormuz by restricting passage to vessels belonging to or affiliated with Israel and the United States.
Gulf countries consider new pipelines to avoid Strait of Hormuz: Financial Times
