LUSAKA, Jan. 15 (ChinaMil) -- The Ministry of Defense of Zambia awarded the International Cooperation Medal to the 11 members of the 20th Chinese military medical team to aid Zambia last Friday.
The medal-awarding ceremony was held at the Zambian Army Headquarters in recognition of the outstanding contributions made by these Chinese military medical experts.
Senior officers from the Zambian Ministry of Defense, Chinese Ambassador to Zambia Yang Youming and Chinese military attaché Sun Ming attended the medal-awarding ceremony.
Permanent Secretary of the Zambia's Defense Ministry Sturdy Mwale addressed the ceremony. On behalf of the Zambian Government, Defense Ministry and the Armed Forces, Mwale expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the Chinese side for providing constant and enormous medical assistance to Zambia. He spoke highly of the all-weather high-quality medical service provided by the 20th Chinese military medical team.
Yang Youming said in his speech that China's Defense Ministry has sent 21 military medical teams to Zambia since 1984 and a total of 266 Chinese military doctors have performed medical aid missions at the General Hospital of the Zambian Defense Force located in Lusaka.
Yang spoke highly of the outstanding contributions made by the 20th Chinese military medical team to enhancing the friendship between the two countries and the two militaries. He congratulated the 11 team members on winning the medal.
The 11 Chinese military doctors are from departments of otolaryngology, radiology, ophthalmology, stomatology, cardiology, orthopedics, surgery, blood purification, gastroenterology, medical engineering and so on. They arrived in Zambia on Jan. 22, 2017 for the one-year aid mission.
The 21st Chinese military medical team departed from Shanghai for Zambia on Jan. 10, 2018.
