人民解放军海军国际研讨会

More than 3 years into the Chinese Navy's escort mission in the Gulf of Aden, it is now inviting international colleagues to share experiences and set up a better platform to work side by side.

84 delegates are attending the inaugural International Counter Piracy and Escort Symposium in Nanjing.

Information and experience sharing are among those topics high on the agenda.

Captain Thomas Schuetze is from German Defense Ministry.

"People who are wearing the dark blue uniform and the golden stripes feel part of a community. And we are here amongst friends and brothers almost. This definitely helps to share information and generate trust."

Li Ping was captain of the fifth escort mission of a total of 10 that China conducted.

Li spoke on the role English language plays in an international fleet.

"Those international escort and peacekeeping missions we have been committed to made English skills daily necessity. Language is no longer that much of a barrier for us to get to know our colleagues from other countries. An imperfect comparison would be car driving, it used to be a type of occupation, but now it's become a basic skill to function."

During the many missions in strange waters, Chinese Naval officers boarded foreign vessels whilst also inviting their counterparts, or 'peers' as the crews refer to them, to board the Chinese ships.

Commander Jonathan Ley was captain of a British warship when he first met his Chinese colleagues back in 2008.

"I did a nine-month counter-piracy patrol when I was in command of a British warship in the Gulf of Aden. Yes, I went onboard, I think it was the first Chinese deployment that China did in 2008 and 2009. And I went onboard the ship. Lots of cooperation, exchange of ideas and exchange of tactics."

The Chinese Defense Ministry has confirmed that China is stepping up coordination and cooperation with India and Japan on international naval escort activities.

The PLA Navy has carried out ocean missions for over three years.

So far, 10 navy flotillas with almost 10,000 sailors on board have been sent to sea to curb Somali pirate activity.

Nearly 4,500 civil vessels have been escorted by the PLA Navy fleets.

For CRI, I'm Wu Jia.