At a news briefing in Beijing on December 27, 2018, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said that President Xi Jinping had sent a message of condolences to his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo over the deadly tsunami that hit the coastal areas of Sunda Strait. She announced that China would provide aid through the Red Cross Society of China and other channels.

Hua explained that China is willing to enhance disaster management cooperation with ASEAN to further improve the capacity to prevent disasters and reduce damage in the region. “China and ASEAN are discussing a memorandum of understanding in disaster management cooperation,” said Hua, noting that annual talks between China and the ASEAN Humanitarian Assistance (AHA)Center had been held and that an earthquake and tsunami monitoring and warning system was under discussion.

Under the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF)framework, China and ASEAN have jointly held a series of seminars on coping with maritime disasters, earthquakes, climate change and coastal disasters in the region,Hua added.