China's military diplomacy, as part of the country's overall diplomacy, has contributed to building a favorable international security environment for the country's peaceful development, an article said Thursday.

The article on the Liberation Army Daily, the newspaper of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), summarized the characteristic of China's military diplomacy in 2005, saying it is more "active" and "pragmatic".

Over the year, the Chinese armed forces have made remarkable achievements in its bilateral and multilateral cooperation in defense and security fields. The mutual trust and friendship between PLA and foreign armed forces have been strengthened, it says.

China not only enhanced military exchanges with big countries such as the United States and Russia, but also cemented cooperation with its neighboring countries and vast developing countries, the article said.

Confronting frequent national disasters in 2005, relevant departments of PLA offered timely assistance for disaster countries after the tsunami in the Indian Ocean, the earthquake in Pakistan, as well as Hurricane Katrina in the United States.

In October, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld paid his first visit to China since his taking up the post in January 2001. During his stay, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission Guo Boxiong and Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan met or held talks with him.

Rumsfeld also visited the PLA Second Artillery Force, which is the first time that the force was open to a foreign military leader.

"The China trip of Rumsfeld is a very important one that helps to increase mutual trust and upgrade the Sino-US military relations," the article says. Both sides realized that they should further strengthen cooperation through academy education, personnel exchange and mutual fleet visits.

Prior to that, Defense Ministries of China and the United States held their seventh round of consultation on defense at vice-ministerial level on April 28-29 in Washington.

The two sides reached lots of consensus and agreed to strengthen military exchanges and promote mutual trust in the coming year.

"China-Russia military relationship has also witnessed stable development this year, which can be marked by their first-ever joint military drill in August." the article says.

"The success of the joint military exercise is an important embodiment of deeper Sino-Russian military security cooperation. It has further enriched the content of the bilateral strategic cooperative partnership," it says.

Besides deepening relations with big countries, the Chinese armed forces have been committed to cementing security cooperation with countries in the region, the article says.

The country has conducted fruitful cooperation and dialogues with Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in the security field, and made progress in its joint patrol with Vietnam in the boundary area of Beibu Bay, it says.

Over the whole year, China has conducted military exchanges with 138 countries, engaged in 41 bilateral or multilateral cooperation projects. China's naval fleet had carried out joint rescue drills with naval forces of Pakistan, India and Thailand, successively.

(Xinhua News Agency December 30, 2005)