A two-day military skills competition kicked off in China's Nanjing on Wednesday.

The competition was approved by the Headquarters of the General Staff of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and is organized by PLA University of Science and Technology (UST).

Teams consisting of 10 cadets each will pit against each other in areas such as navigation, field camping, night search, military tactics and shooting.

The participating teams are from 12 international military academies in five countries: China, Pakistan, Germany, Japan and Brazil.

Zhang Yafei, headmaster of UST, said military skills competitions are a common practice for world military powers to train cadets.

It is the first time for China to hold a competition with international military academies. UST in 2013 held China's first military skills competition among domestic military academies.