On the evening of 24 July, Senior Colonel Dai Qilin, Defence Attaché of the Chinese Embassy in Brunei, held a reception at the Tarindak Banquet Centre in Bandar Seri Begawan to celebrate the 96th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Ambassador Xiao Jianguo led all diplomats of the Embassy to attend the reception. Minister of the Prime Minister's Office and Minister of Defence II Pehin Major General（Reti）Halbi, Commander of the Royal Armed Forces of Brunei Major General Dato Haszaimi, Commanders of the Army, Navy and Air Force and Joint Forces Headquarters, Deputy Permanent Secretaries of the Ministry of Defence and other senior officials of the Brunei Government and the military, and Diplomatic Corps, the Military Attaché Corps, and local Chinese communities, altogether about 290 people, attended the reception on the scene.
In his speech, Senior Colonel Dai reviewed the glorious history of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) over the past 96 years, and introduced the important contributions made by the PLA to safeguard national sovereignty, territorial integrity and development interests. He stressed that China has always adhered to the road of peaceful development, pursued an independent foreign policy of peace and a national defence policy in defensive nature, and that the Chinese army has actively participated in UN peacekeeping operations, escorting ships in the Gulf of Aden, humanitarian rescue and other international military cooperation, fulfilled its international obligations with practical actions, and contributed to maintaining world peace and promoting development.
Senior Colonel Dai expressed that, in April 2022, President Xi Jinping put forward the Global Security Initiative for the first time to the world, advocating a common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable concept of security, and embarking on a new type of security path of dialogue rather than confrontation, partnership rather than alliance, and win-win rather than zero-sum, which contributes Chinese wisdom to addressing international security challenges. The Chinese army is taking concrete action to put the global security initiative into practice, comprehensively promoting international military cooperation and contributing to the building of a community of shared destiny.
Finally, Defence Attaché Dai said that this year is the fifth anniversary of the establishment of the China-Brunei strategic cooperative partnership, while the military relations between the two countries forms an important part. The Chinese People's Liberation Army and the Royal Brunei Armed Forces have always maintained a friendly and cooperative relationship between the two militaries and maintained extensive cooperation in the areas of high-level visits, security dialogue, joint exercises and training, etc. The first meeting of the Joint Defence Working Committee between the two countries was successfully held at the beginning of this year, a Chinese delegation participated in the Brunei International Defence Exhibition in May, and the training ship “Qi Jiguang” visited Brunei at the beginning of June, which has strongly contributed to the continuous development of the relationship between the two militaries.
H.E. Ambassador Xiao, Defence Attaché Dai and Pehin Halbi cut the birthday cake for the Army Day and had a friendly and cordial conversation. Pehin Halbi pleasantly recalled he represented Brunei for the first signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on defence cooperation between Brunei and China, as well as his recent attendance at the Xiangshan Forum, and was pleased to see the great progress in the friendly relations between the two militaries and wished for deepening of the bilateral relations.
The reception was held in a friendly and cordial atmosphere. Local Chinese associations and celebrities presented flower baskets and displayed paintings created by Brunei artists on the theme of the visit of the Qi Jiguang ship. The micro-video "We are always here waiting orders" and photo album "For Peace" were shown on the spot. The guests congratulated the PLA on its great achievements over the past 96 years, highly appreciated the contributions of the Chinese army to maintaining world peace and stability, spoke highly of the exchanges and cooperation between the two armies, and wished for greater development and progress in the relations between PLA and RBAF.
