The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy's hospital ship "Silk Road Ark" arrived at Papua New Guinea's capital Port Moresby on Wednesday, commencing a seven-day friendly visit.
This is one of the stops for the hospital ship during its "Harmony Mission 2025," and the third visit by a Chinese naval hospital ship to Papua New Guinea.
The 220-day mission 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.
During the visit, the hospital ship will provide patient treatment, community clinics, and donations of medical supplies, and it will also send medical teams to conduct physical examinations for new recruits of the Papua New Guinea Defense Force.
The hospital ship departed from Quanzhou City of east China's Fujian Province on September 5 for the humanitarian medical service mission to the South Pacific and Latin America.
China's navy hospital ship arrives in Papua New Guinea for friendly visit
International media on Saturday and Sunday visited the core disaster area of mudslide-hit Gyirong Port on the China-Nepal border in southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region.
The reporters from the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Brazil among other countries and regions visited the area and learned about the disaster situation, ongoing rescue operations, and progress in recovery and reconstruction.
"China has this particular the capacity to address this kind of crisis. You have thousands of workers trained for this and you have machines made for this kind of efforts. And of course, our heart goes to them for the kind of work they are putting," said KJM Varma Mokanda, a reporter from Press Trust of India.
The mudslide, triggered by a high-altitude glacier collapse in Nepal on Aug 26, had left 43 people dead and 519 others missing at the border port as of 18:00 Saturday, the emergency response and rescue headquarters told a press conference on Sunday.
As of 18:00 Saturday, more than 2,500 people and over 500 vehicles had been deployed for the rescue, and more than 1,000 flights of drones had air-dropped 5.43 tons of supplies, officials said at the press conference.
International media visit mudslide-hit Gyirong Port
