GULF OF ADEN, June 13 -- On the afternoon of June 8, local time, the 40th and 41st Chinese naval escort taskforces held a farewell ceremony in the waters of the Gulf of Aden. After the ceremony, the three warships of the 40th escort taskforce turned their direction to leave the Gulf of Aden and the waters off Somalia, and the 41st escort taskforce began to perform escort missions independently.
The 41st Chinese naval escort taskforce, consisting of the guided-missile destroyer Suzhou (Hull 132), the guided-missile frigate Nantong (Hull 533) and the comprehensive supply ship Chaohu (Hull 890) , set sail from a military port in Zhoushan, east China's Zhejiang Province, on May 18. Passing through the Miyako Strait, the Bashi Strait and the Malacca Strait, the three Chinese naval ships entered the Indian Ocean and finally arrived at the designated waters in the Gulf of Aden on June 6. Subsequently, the two escort taskforces jointly performed escort tasks, held replenishment-at-sea training.
Since December 2008, the Chinese PLA Navy has dispatched more than 100 warships and more than 30,000 service members to the Gulf of Aden and the waters off Somalia to perform escort missions. The 40 Chinese naval escort taskforces have escorted over 7,000 merchant ships of China and foreign countries in 1,500 batches, making China's share of contributions to safeguarding world peace and ensuring the security of important transportation lines over the open seas.
