QUITO -- A group of Chinese military doctors were awarded Ecuador's highest military honor on Thursday for their outstanding performance over the past year in the country.

The seventh group of the Chinese People's Liberation Army's medical team to Ecuador received the "Star of the Armed Forces" award during a ceremony at Eloy Alfaro Military School in Quito.

The group of four that arrived in Ecuador in November 2012 offered traditional Chinese medicine diagnosis and treatments to thousands of military and civilian patients in the Latin American country.

Zhang Guolong, who heads the team, said "the honor reflects the friendly relationship of exchange and cooperation between the two armed forces."

For his part, Leonardo Barreiro, Ecuador's armed forces chief who presented the award, lauded the solidarity between the two countries, noting that the work of the doctors shows that "human values help us know each other and transcend borders, race, culture and language."