Wednesday 17 December 2008


CHINA PREPARING TO SEND NAVY SHIPS TO SOMALIA

Mark McDonald

International Herald Tribune, December 17, 2008

HONG KONG: In what would be the first active deployment of its warships beyond the Pacific, China appears set to send naval vessels to help in the fight against hijackers in the Gulf of Aden.

A deputy foreign minister and a leading naval strategist were quoted in Chinese state media Wednesday as saying that Beijing was close to sending a naval mission to the gulf.

"China is seriously considering sending naval ships to the Gulf of Aden and waters off the Somali coast for escorting operations in the near future," said the Foreign Ministry official, He Yafei, as quoted by Xinhua, the official Chinese press agency. His remarks came at a ministerial meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

Li Jie, a military strategist and naval expert, told the state-run China Daily newspaper that cooperating with a multinational force operating against East African pirates would be a "very good opportunity" for the Chinese Navy.

"Apart from fighting pirates," he said, "another key goal is to register the presence of the Chinese Navy."

The newspaper earlier this month said that Major General Jin Yinan, a military planner at the National Defense University, had conceived the Gulf of Aden plan. The paper quoted Jin as saying "the Chinese Navy should send naval vessels to the Gulf of Aden to carry out anti-piracy duties."

(…) [artículo aquí]

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