HANOI - A transport aircraft of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China carrying a batch of China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine landed Monday at Noi Bai International Airport in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi.

At the handover event, the Chinese Ambassador to Vietnam Xiong Bo said China had been paying close attention to the epidemic situation in Vietnam, and that the cooperation in the fight against the pandemic is a significant part of the cooperation between the militaries.

China is willing to further its cooperation with Vietnam in battling COVID-19 in multiple ways, so as to help Vietnam both control the disease and advance socio-economic development, as well as to ensure the bilateral trade and the stability of the industrial and supply chains between the two countries, Xiong said.

The handover marked the first time the Vietnamese military received COVID-19 vaccines from foreign militaries, and was the most vivid image of the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries, Hoang Xuan Chien, Vietnam's deputy minister of national defense, said at the handover event.

Extending gratitude towards China for the vaccine, he promised that Vietnam will make the most of the vaccine and administer the doses in time among the Vietnamese personnel on the frontline against the pandemic.

According to Vietnam's Ministry of Health, as of 6:30 pm local time Monday, Vietnam had registered 354,355 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases since the start of the current wave in the country in late April.