A regiment of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army medical corps crossed the border and arrived in Laos on Tuesday at Vientiane Railway Station via the Laos-China Railway.
The medical team arrived in Laos for a five-day humanitarian and medical rescue exercise with a focus on emergency rescue and disaster relief work in relation to national defense, Vientiane Times reports.
The medical corps arrived on what has been dubbed the “Peace Train 2022,” with joint emergency and rescue exercises to be held in Vientiane Capital and Vientiane Province from 25 to 29 July.
Some 149 Chinese army medics will undertake the exercises with their Lao counterparts.
The mission theme for “Peace Train 2022” is “humanitarian medical assistance in response to typhoon damage.”
Following the exercises, the Chinese medical team will spend two days providing assistance at Vientiane’s 103 Army Hospital.
The two armies are collaborating to address the threat of natural disasters, improve competency in humanitarian and medical assistance, and protect and improve people’s lives and health.
This assistance from China comes as Laos fully enters its monsoon season, with heavy rains already causing floods in parts of northern Laos, particularly in Xayaboury Province.
This Saturday will mark four years since the Attapeu dam collapse of 2018, the country’s worst dam disaster during which some 175 billion cubic feet of water from a tributary of the Mekong River poured over Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy hydropower project in southern Laos.
Hundreds were swept away in the disaster, with severe flooding affecting thousands of people.
