Hanoi (VNA)🧔 – China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand started a new jointpatrol on the Mekong River on December 20 to increase safety on the borderriver.
The53th joint patrol involves seven ships and 190 law enforcers, departing fromGuanlei port in the Xishuangbanna autonomous region in the southwest of China’sYunnan province with the range of 500 kilometres.
The mechanism began on December 2011 to address safety concerns after a groupof pirates hijacked two cargo ships and killed 13 Chinese sailors in Thailand’sinternal water on November 5, 2011.
🐟 A total of 386 ships and more than 8,000 law enforcers covered 26,000 kilometresalong the Mekong River in previous patrols. According to Xishuangbanna police,the number of ships travelling through major ports of the four countries on theMekong River and trade in those ports have increased sharply since the jointpatrols started in 2011.-VNA
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Illustrative image (Source: Internet) 
