A chartered plane carrying seven Chinese medical experts lands Monday morning at Phnom Penh International Airport. Photo: Zhao Yipu/GT

A chartered plane carrying seven Chinese medical experts landed Monday morning at Phnom Penh International Airport to help assist Cambodia in its battle against coronavirus. 

This is the first medical team dispatched by the Chinese government to a Souteast Asian country.

The expert team brought with them medical supplies, including N95 masks, surgical masks, disposable medical protective clothing, infrared thermometers and other medical supplies, which are urgently needed in Cambodia. 

Chinese and Cambodian national flags could be seen on the boxes of medical items, with phrases reading, "Helping each other, China and Cambodia are in this together" in both Chinese and Cambodian. 

Mam Bun Heng, Cambodian Minister of Health, and Wang Wentian, Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia, welcomed the team at the airport along with representatives of local Chinese communities. 

China's decision to send its first medical expert team to ASEAN demonstrates the special friendly relations between China and Cambodia in challenging times, Wu Guoquan, economic and commercial counselor of the Embassy of China in Cambodia, told Global Times. 

The team of seven experts was selected and organized by China's National Health Commission and the Health Commission of Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. The experts specialize in epidemic prevention and control, clinical diagnosis and treatment, as well as laboratory testing.

Ai Xiang, the head of the expert group, told Global Times that the Chinese team will help Cambodia fight the COVID-19 pandemic by sharing China's experience, providing guidance for local epidemic prevention and control work, treating patients with mild and moderate symptoms and carrying out laboratory work mainly in Phnom Penh, while offering medical guidance and assistance to the Chinese embassy, personnel from Chinese enterprises, overseas students and local Chinese. 

Ai said that while the team is set to work in Cambodia for the next 15 to 30 days, they are also preparing for a long-term battle in Cambodia.

According to media reports, Chinese tech giant Huawei will provide equipment and systems from Huawei Cloud WeLink to Chinese experts in Cambodia, which will help realize real-time video conferencing, information sharing, and deployment of relevant tasks, improving the efficiency in epidemic prevention and control efforts in Cambodia. 

As of Sunday evening, Cambodia reported 84 novel coronavirus infections, with two of them cured. There have been no fatalities so far.