PH expresses concern on China’s flares over Australian plane in SCS
Department of Foreign Affairs building (From the official DFA Facebook page.)
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines expressed concern over Chinese fighter jets’ deployment of flares against an Australian reconnaissance aircraft flying over the South China Sea.
The Australian Poseidon surveillance plane was conducting a “routine” surveillance patrol on Feb. 11 when the Chinese aircraft Shenyang J-16 strike jet “released flares in close proximity”, according to Canberra’s defense department.
READ: Australia accuses China fighter jet of unsafe move above South China Sea
Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said the flares passed within 30 meters of the aircraft, adding that the move posed the “potential for significant damage.”
“The Philippine Government is concerned over the unsafe maneuvers and deployment of flares at close proximity conducted by a Chinese People’s Liberation Army-Air Force aircraft against an Australian Air Force aircraft during a recent maritime patrol in the South China Sea,” the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said in a statement.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said that “without Chinese permission, the Australian military aircraft deliberately intruded into the airspace around China’s Xisha Islands”, Beijing’s designation for the Paracel Islands.
The DFA, however, said that “all countries are expected to respect freedom of navigation and overflight in and above international sea lines of communication, such as the South China Sea, and to avoid interference in legitimate activities conducted in international waters and airspace.”
China asserts sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea through its ten-dash-line, which encroaches upon most of the West Philippine Sea and exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam.
However, Beijing’s sweeping claim has already been effectively invalidated by a 2016 international tribunal ruling stemming from a case filed by Manila in 2013.
