By ABC foreign affairs correspondent Stephen Dziedzic
Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles (file photo) Photo: ABC / Ian Cutmore
- Australia has lodged a diplomatic protest with Beijing after a Chinese jet fighter released flares close to an Australian surveillance plane in the South China Sea.
- It is the latest in a string of encounters between the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and the Chinese military. Nobody was harmed, but Australia's Defence Minister said the Chinese action was "unsafe and unprofessional".
- What's next?: Australia's PM Anthony Albanese will meet with Donald Trump overnight, Australian time, but analysts have played down any link between that encounter and this incident.
Australia has lodged a diplomatic protest with Beijing after a Chinese fighter jet released flares close to an Australian surveillance plane in the South China Sea, in yet another potentially dangerous encounter between the two militaries.
Defence Minister Richard Marles said the Australian P-8 surveillance plane was conducting a routine patrol over the South China Sea when it was approached by a People's Liberation Army (PLA) Su-35 fighter jet that released flares, two of them "very close" to the P8.
Marles said while none of the Australian crew members were injured, the encounter was "unsafe and unprofessional" and that the government had made representations to China in both Canberra and Beijing.
"No damage was done but it was dangerous and it was unsafe, and inherent in that is that it could have been a different outcome," he said.
Marles would not say how close the flares came to the P8, but said the Australian military crews were able to respond in order to remain safe.
It is the latest in a string of encounters between the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and the Chinese military, which has deployed flares and released chaff near Australian aircraft before, as well as deploying sonar when Australian navy divers were in the water.
Analysts say that China is trying to force Australia and other Western nations out of the contested waters of the South China Sea, as well as from other maritime areas near the Chinese mainland.
An Australian Defence Force P-8A Poseidon aircraft (file photo). Photo: © Commonwealth of Australia, Department of Defence
China has also been frustrated by Australia's decision to conduct joint operations and training exercises in the South China Sea with a growing list of international partners, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan and the Philippines.
But Marles said Australia would continue to operate in international waters.
"We will continue to operate our defence force in a manner which asserts the rules-based order in the South China Sea and in international waters and in international airspace," he said.
"[And] we will always have the utmost regard for the safety of Australian Defence Force personnel."
Marles said Australia was deliberately publicising the encounter with the PLA as part of the government's broader strategy in response to dangerous behaviour by China's military.
"From our point of view, what's really important is that there are very clear communications, and very clear behaviours," he told journalists in Canberra.
He would not be drawn on the timing of the encounter - which occurred as the Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was winging his way to Washington, DC, for his first substantive meeting with US President Donald Trump.
"This has clearly happened before, so it's not the first occasion on which we've seen this," he said.
"And that's why we have a very set procedure that we go through in instances of this kind."
Australian analysts have also played down any link between this encounter and Albanese's visit to Washington, saying that China's senior military leadership was unlikely to be closely tracking the prime minister's moves.
- This story was first published by ABC
