Peace Ark concludes visit to Bangladesh
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Chinese navy hospital ship Peace Ark concluded its visit to Bangladesh as well as the "Mission Harmony-2010" on Monday and departed for China.
Rear Admiral Bao Yuping, the commanding officer of the mission, said at the concluding ceremony held in Bangladesh's Chittagong city, 242 kms southeast of capital Dhaka, "during our stay here, all personnel of the ship experienced the profound traditional friendship between the two nations and the two peoples and the brotherhood between the two navies."
Peace Ark set sail from Zhejiang province in east China on Aug. 31 to carry out the mission code named "Mission Harmony-2010".
The ship called successively on Djibouti, Kenya, Tanzania, Seychelles and Bangladesh for goodwill visits and medical service, providing health check, diagnosis and treatment for free to local public and military personnel, conducting medical cooperation and academic exchange with local medical staff, and dispatching medical teams to local hospitals, primary schools, orphanages, nursing homes, communities.
According to statistics, the medical staff have totally offered health check to 1,417 persons, received 12,353 outpatients and 57 impatients and done successfully 95 operations.
Bao said, "The visits of Peace Ark to the five African and Asian countries, which have yielded rich fruits, are voyage of harmony and voyage of peace. Mission Harmony-2010 has put into practice the concepts of 'harmonious world' and 'harmonious ocean' advocated by the Chinese government."
"The visits promoted traditional friendship with the five countries, strengthened the military cooperation, presented to the world Chinese military's image of maintaining peace and caring about life," he said.
Bao extended, on behalf of the Chinese navy, the gratitude to the governments and militaries of the five countries for their generous support and gracious help to the mission.
Commodore Nizamuddin, commander of Chittagong navy base, said at the ceremony he thanked very much for the visit to Bangladesh by the hospital ship which provided medical service to the local people.
Nizamuddin believed the visit would further strengthen the cooperation and friendship between the two countries and the two navies.
He hoped more Chinese navy ships will visit Bangladesh in the future.
Peace Ark is the first hospital ship in the world with a 10,000- ton capacity. China independently developed and built it. It has 428 soldiers, officers and medical workers aboard.
