11-07-24, 08:02
|
#5
|
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 50,630
Thanks: 28,768
Thanked 14,429 Times in 10,235 Posts
|
Chinese Navy Destroyer & Helicopter Shadowed Australian Warship in Standoff
Chinese Navy Destroyer and Helicopter Shadowed Australian Warship During High-Profile Standoff, Documents Show
Australian helicopter was outside Chinese territorial waters when forced to manoeuvre to avoid fighter jet flares in ‘unsafe’ operation
The Guardian 11 JUL 2024
An Australian helicopter was flying south-east of China’s Shandong peninsula but outside its territorial waters when a Chinese fighter aircraft released flares in its path, new documents show.
Guardian Australia can reveal that Australia’s HMAS Hobart warship was also being shadowed by a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) navy destroyer and another Chinese helicopter at the time of the 4 May standoff.
The incident emerged as another flashpoint in tensions between the two countries, casting a shadow over attempts to “stabilise” the diplomatic relationship.
The Australian government still refuses to reveal the exact location of what it considers to be an “unsafe and unprofessional” release of flares, but documents obtained under freedom of information (FoI) laws reveal more details than previously disclosed.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
The documents include briefings the defence minister, Richard Marles, received from his department about the incident in the Yellow Sea, which covers an area between the Chinese mainland and the Korean peninsula.
One email sent on the evening of Sunday 5 May noted that HMAS Hobart “was operating in the Yellow Sea, south-east of the Shandong Peninsula, undertaking Operation Argos”.
This is the name the Australian defence force (ADF) gives to its operation that aims to monitor and deter ship-to-ship goods transfers in breach of UN sanctions on North Korea.
“HMAS Hobart’s embarked MH-60R helicopter was airborne during this period,” the email from the director of military strategic commitments said.
“HMAS Hobart was being shadowed by a PLA-Navy (PLA-N) destroyer (DDG-113) and the embarked … helicopter from that vessel.”
The email said when flares were released “within approximately 300 metres” of the MH-60R Seahawk helicopter, it had to manoeuvre to avoid the flares.
“On this basis the intercept was assessed as UNSAFE.”
The email said defence’s international policy division “will work with you” and also the prime minister’s department and the foreign affairs department “to determine the approach to publicising this incident”. The recipients of this email were blanked out.
The following evening, Nine News broke the story in a TV report that included quotes from an interview with Marles. Shortly after that report was aired, Marles and his department issued public statements more broadly.
The newly released FoI documents include a section marked “background – not for public release”.
It said the Australian helicopter “during its second mission” was shadowed by a PLA air force jet aircraft and had to take “urgent avoiding action” when flares were released at close range.
A ministerial background brief elaborated: “The MH-60R then communicated to the PLA aircraft that it was departing the area due to safety concerns and returned to HMAS Hobart where it landed safely.”
The exact location of the incident was blanked out in the documents released to Guardian Australia.
But independent observers said the documents appeared to confirm the incident occurred beyond the Chinese territorial sea (extending out to 12 nautical miles) and the Chinese contiguous zone (extending out to 24 nautical miles).
They said this meant that, at a minimum, the incident must have occurred 24 nautical miles off the Chinese coast, likely within China’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
Australia Shocks China by Revealing New Secret Weapon
RELATED:
Why China has built a secret military base in Tajikistan
Chinese fighter jet drops flares in front of Australian Navy helicopter
|
|
|