Joint counterterrorism training and exercises among military forces from members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its dialogue countries can improve the countries' joint command and operation mechanism when responding together to regional terrorist threats, military officers said on Wednesday as related field training exercises began.

The exercises, under the framework of the Experts' Working Group of counterterrorism of the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting-Plus, kicked off in Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, on Wednesday.

More than 800 officers and soldiers from 18 countries, as well as the ASEAN Center of Military Medicine, will participate in counterterrorism exercises together.