Chang Wanquan, member of the Central Military Commission and director of the General Armaments Department of the PLA, met with General Edmund Entacher, chief of general staff of the Austrian Armed Forces, and held working talks with Lt. Gen. Freyo Apfalter, head of the Armament Department of the Austrian Defense Ministry, in Vienna on May 12, 2009.

　　Both sides spoke positively of the development of the ties between the two countries and the two militaries in recent years, as well as the progress made in exchanges and cooperation between the armament departments of the two sides. Chang Wanquan thanked Austria's government and armed forces for their timely assistance a year ago to the Wenchuan earthquake area in Sichuan Province of China. The Austrian side highly praised Chinese PLA's great efforts in fighting against the Wenchuan earthquake. Both Chinese and Austrian sides had in-depth exchanges of views on such issues as further expanding military cooperation between the two militaries. The two sides reached unanimous agreement on making joint efforts to expand and deepen pragmatic mutual exchanges and cooperation in various fields, in a bid to promote bilateral military ties to a new level.

　　Zhang Zhannan, deputy commander of the PLA Navy, Jing Wenchun, deputy commander of the PLA Air Force, Wang Jiurong, deputy commander of the PLA Second Artillery Force, Yu Jianguo, director of the International Cooperation Department of the PLA General Armaments Department, and Wu Ken, Chinese ambassador to Austria, were present at the meeting and the talks.

　　Chang Wanquan arrived in Austria to kick off a four-day official goodwill visit there on May 11, 2009 at the invitation of Austrian Defense Ministry.

　　(May 13, PLA Daily)                                            Editor: Dong Zhaohui