The Minister of Defence Aleksandar Vulin met today at the Military Medical Academy with the six-member team of medical experts from the People's Republic of China, who are staying in the Republic of Serbia with the aim of helping us combat the coronavirus epidemic with their knowledge and experience.

After the meeting, Minister Vulin said that the friendship between the President of the Republic of Serbia and the Supreme Commander of the Serbian Armed Forces, Aleksander Vučić and the President of the People's Republic of China, Xi Jinping, obliges the two nations and enables them to cooperate and be open and trust each other.

- Our friendship made of steel manifests itself now, in these difficult times. With the help of the People's Republic of China, with their doctors’ knowledge, medical and technical assistance, we feel hope again. We can believe that we will fight this horrific virus and that we will do it better, faster, and more efficiently than we could on our own - said Minister Vulin, noting that although Serbia is not China's largest and most important partner, China treats Serbia as if it were, "as if it depended on us, not as if we were asking them for support and help."

On behalf of the Ministry of Defence, the Serbian Armed Forces and all the citizens of Serbia, Minister Vulin thanked the team of Chinese medical experts for leaving their families, friends and country just to help our people and to be one of us.

- History wished that they be here on the day when the NATO aggression against our country began 21 years ago. We were completely alone then, and today, when we are facing an invisible and terrible enemy which can make us disappear, we can see that this time we are not alone - said Minister Vulin.

The Head of MMA’s Crisis Staff and the Deputy Head of the Military Medical Academy, Brigadier General Dragan Dinčić said that the employees of the Military Medical Academy were pleased with the opportunity to learn from the best during their Chinese colleagues’ visit to their institution.

- Among the doctors who came from China are several epidemiologists, pulmonologists, specialists in emergency medicine, as well as one clinical psychologist. We had a number of meetings yesterday and today. We also listened to their three lectures on Covid-19 diagnostics, therapy and epidemiology. We asked them a lot of questions, and they asked us, too. We tried to answer them and show them everything we had the capabilities, knowledge and strength to do so far and to tell them what our plans for the future were - said General Dinčić, noting that the Chinese doctors stated their opinion on everything they had seen and informed the Minister of Defence, the members of the Government and the Presidency about their position. They also stated that the members of the military health care will strive to do all that is expected of them.

On behalf of the six-member medical team, sent by the Government of the People's Republic of China to assist Serbia in dealing with the epidemiological situation, the Head of Delegation, Peng Ziyang, spoke at today's meeting. He said that his team had visited the Institute of Public Health of Serbia “Dr Milan Jovanović Batut” in addition to the Military Medical Academy, and that after the analysis of the epidemiological situation in Serbia so far, the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister were given suggestions on how to extend measures that would help suppress the coronavirus infection.

Today's meeting with the Chinese doctors was also attended by the Head of the Military Healthcare Department, Brigadier General Uglješa Jovičić and the Head of the MMA, Colonel Miroslav Vukosavljević.