BOAO, April 3 -- The Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2023 was held in Boao, Hainan, at the end of March, under the theme of "An Uncertain World: Solidarity and Cooperation for Development amid Challenges".
Pierre Krähenbühl, a former deputy secretary-general of the United Nations who had participated in assistance actions of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Afghan, Syria, Somalia and other places, accepted an exclusive interview with the PLA Daily, as the current head of ICRC's Regional Delegation for East Asia.
Krähenbühl said that humanitarian aid is a supremely challenging task requiring a high sense of responsibility and duty. The Chinese military took part in a number of humanitarian actions in recent years, such as rescuing and aiding the Tonga people suffering from a volcanic eruption disaster, participating in the earthquake relief work of Afghan, and sending COVID-19 prevention supplies for multiple countries and regions. He highly appraised that the Chinese military has made prominent achievements and been widely acclaimed by all sectors of society.
According to Krähenbühl, ICRC has long been carrying out humanitarian actions to protect and help victims of wars and conflicts, and maintained in-depth cooperation with the UN in peacekeeping operations (PKOs). It has also kept a good relationship with the Chinese peacekeeping force for a long time, providing not only professional training for Chinese troops undertaking overseas peacekeeping missions, but also situation briefing of mission areas for those about to set out.
In February of 2023, ICRC and the Red Cross Society of China signed a memorandum of cooperation (MOC) to reach a consensus on the direction of cooperation in the next five years.
"There is broad room for cooperation between ICRC and the Chinese military," Krähenbühl said. "We have maintained a good relationship with the Chinese military. ICRC had held a seminar on laws of armed conflict at sea in Asia-pacific with the PLA National Defense University, and an international workshop with the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association (CACDA) in 2018. And in the future, we expect more communication opportunities with China and contribute to world peace and development through joint efforts. "
