Nearly 50 commercial flights had to be diverted last week due to Chinese military exercises led off Australia, Australian officials said on Monday, February 24 during a government hearing. Last week, three Chinese vessels had carried out a series of naval exercises, with real potential shots on a highly frequented flight trajectory connecting Australia and New Zealand. Airservices Australia, the Australian airline security agency, assured that it has learned the existence of these exercises when a commercial flight captured a message issued by Chinese boats on Friday morning. Read also | Australia concerned with real shots of Chinese warships, off its coast is later read “At this stage, we did not know if it was a real message or not”, a Declared Peter Curran, Deputy Managing Director of Airservices Australia, during a government hearing on Monday evening. “The alert was broadcast on a frequency monitored by commercial flight drivers, but not by Australian air controllers,” said Curran. He said that 49 commercial flights, for some “in full flight”, were forced to change their trajectory to bypass the shooting area once it appeared that the warning messages were proven. Series of incidents The Australian Minister of Defense, Richard Marles, acknowledged that Chinese ships were in international waters and acted in compliance with international law, stressing however that Australian warships generally announce such exercises twelve to Twenty-four hours in advance to give airlines time to adapt. China has defended “safe and professional” maneuvers, without specifying if real ammunition had been used. The Australian and New Zealand armies monitor three Chinese navy ships-a frigate, a cruiser and an oil-ravitailleman-since they were identified in international waters last week. The boats were found on Tuesday morning east of Tasmania, according to the New Zealand defense. Read also | Article reserved for our China subscribers: How Xi Jinping put the army in battle order later this incident is the last of a series between Australia and China occurring in airspace or on the navigation routes from the Asia-Pacific region. On February 13, Australia accused a Chinese hunter of having had a “dangerous” behavior near one of his military aircraft at the Southern China Sea, Beijing accusing Canberra of his sovereignty in return. The world with AFP reuse this content
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Author : News7
Publish date : 2025-02-25 18:28:24
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