‘Unacceptable’: Australian PM criticises China over fighter jet incident

Protests lodged after Chinese aircraft fired flares in path of an Australian navy helicopter above international waters.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has accused Beijing of “unacceptable” conduct after reports a Chinese fighter jet fired flares in the flight path of an Australian navy helicopter over international waters.

The MH60R Seahawk helicopter was flying above the Yellow Sea on Saturday as part of the United Nations’s efforts to enforce sanctions on North Korea when a Chinese Air Force J-10 jet dropped flares above and several hundred metres ahead of it, Australia’s Department of Defence said late on Monday evening.

“We’ve just made it very clear to China that this is unprofessional and that it’s unacceptable,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told Australia’s Nine Network on Tuesday.

Albanese said Australia has raised its concerns through diplomatic and military channels, although Beijing had yet to respond.

The Australian Defence Force personnel were “in international waters, international airspace, and they’re doing work to ensure that the sanctions that the world has imposed through the United Nations on North Korea, due to their intransient and reckless behaviour, are enforced,” he said.