国内英语新闻:Egypt, China pledge closer military cooperation

CAIRO, March 3 (Xinhua) -- The commander-in-chief of Egyptian armed forces met Wednesday in Cairo with visiting Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Ma Xiaotian, pledging to strengthen bilateral military ties.

Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, who is also Egyptian Minister of Defense, said during the meeting that the two countries have seen close cooperation in military, political and economic fields in recent years, which serves both countries' interests as well as regional and world peace and stability.

"The Egyptian military attaches great importance to the friendly relationship with the Chinese counterpart and expects more efforts to be made to further improve pragmatic cooperation," Tantawi said.

For his part, Ma said the two sides enjoy long-term friendly relationship, and fruitful cooperation has been accomplished in the fields of high-level visits and professional personnel training.

"The Chinese side is willing to make joint efforts with the Egyptian side to consolidate the traditional friendship and push forward the in-depth cooperation between the two militaries," Ma said.

Ma arrived in Cairo on Tuesday. During his visit, he also presided over the first session of the Chinese-Egyptian Defense Cooperation Commission.