China and the United States launched a weeklong humanitarian assistance and disaster relief exercise in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, on Monday, the Ministry of National Defense said on Tuesday.

Chinese and US troops perform a joint confined-space rescue operation at Camp Rilea Armed Forces Training Facility of the Oregon Army National Guard in Warrenton, Oregon. (Photo: Xinhua)

More than 200 military personnel from the People's Liberation Army Eastern Theater Command and the United States Army Pacific are taking part in the drill, the ministry said.

Goals include exchanging humanitarian aid and disaster relief knowledge, and improving the two militaries' willingness and capability to conduct joint disaster relief missions, it said.

China and the US held a similar exercise in November last year in Oregon, US.

The joint exercise is part of the consensus reached by President Xi Jinping and Donald Trump during the US president's visit to Beijing in November 2017.