By Laurie Chen
BEIJING (Reuters) -Recent unprecedented live-fire drills by China’s navy in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand were “totally in line with international law”, a spokesperson for its defence ministry said on Thursday.
The comment by the spokesperson, Wu Qian, followed concerns voiced by both countries’ officials that they did not receive adequate warning of the drills in international waters, which forced commercial airlines to divert flights.
“We noticed Australia and New Zealand repeatedly said China’s PLA operations are in line with international law, we think this shows there is no problem,” Wu told a briefing in the Chinese capital.
He did not directly address questions about whether more Tasman Sea drills could be expected, or whether Australia and New Zealand would get more timely warnings in future.
New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters raised the issue during meetings with Chinese leaders in Beijing this week, saying the inadequate notification was a failure that he would like “corrected into the future”.
Reports in Chinese state media this week confirmed the presence of three ships – a Type 055 destroyer, a Type 054 frigate and a replenishment vessel – in the Tasman Sea.
The full extent of the drills is not known but the state-backed Global Times newspaper posted pictures of the stealthy Type 055 destroyer, which Western militaries regard as China’s most advanced naval ship, firing its deck guns.
It is not yet known if the vessel tested its load of cruise missiles that can attack sea and land targets or its torpedoes.
Military attaches and security analysts are watching the deployment closely, given the unprecedented nature of China’s drills in the Tasman Sea and the importance of its eight Type 055s for the growing blue-water capabilities of its navy.
The three Chinese ships were south of Tasmania within Australia’s exclusive economic zone and were now moving west, the New Zealand Defence Force said on Wednesday.
Some online trackers put the Chinese task force 160 nautical miles east of Hobart, or within Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
EEZs are considered international waters and foreign military vessels have rights to operate within them.
(Reporting by Laurie Chen in Beijing and Greg Torode in Hong Kong; writing by Farah Master and Greg Torode; Editing by Kim Coghill and Clarence Fernandez)
