Deputy PM Richard Marles on ‘disconcerting circumstances’ of Chinese warships undertaking live fire testing

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles has said China is yet to give a satisfactory response on the lack of notice its warships would be undertaking live fire testing off Australia’s coastline. It was revealed on Friday that China did not formally inform the Australian Defence Force its three warships off Australian waters were to undertake live fire testing, which forced a warning to commercial flights in the area. Defence has said the lack of official warning from the Chinese vessels was contrary to “best practice”. Speaking on Saturday morning, Mr Marles said that while the incident happened in international waters - where the ships were entitled to be - there was “very short” notice given, meaning commercial flights had to be diverted around the airspace. The defence minister said Qantas, Virgin and Air New Zealand were able to divert and there was never any prospect of people being in danger. He said the Royal Australian Navy would typically give 12 to 24 hours’ notice ahead of similar exercices to allow planes to chart routes around the activity. “You don’t have the kind of mid-air disruption that we saw yesterday, and you don’t have those disconcerting circumstances,” Mr Marles said on Today. “A satisfactory answer (from China) is why that couldn’t have been done. “We’ve been shadowing it since it came to near Australia, into our northern waters a week or two ago. “We’ve got an unprecedented level of assets on the case, shadowing the task group to know exactly what it is doing. “We’ll keep doing that through until whenever this task group completes its mission.” Mr Marles said China had complied with its international obligations, and while it was unusual to see this type of activity off the Australian coastline, it was not the first time. He said this time, authorities were implementing unprecedented levels of surveillance. “We are actually taking a much more serious step in terms of both naval and air force assets and indeed working with our partners in the region, particularly New Zealand,” he said. “It is right now in New Zealand, frigate Takaha, which is most close to the task group. “Depending on where the task group goes from here, we’ve got Australian frigates on standby to pick up the tail and that’s what we will do.” Defence last week revealed it was monitoring two People’s Liberation Army-navy (PLA-N) frigates and a replenishment vessel in the Coral Sea off Queensland, as the ships conducted military exercises. The vessels then moved to off Eden, off the south coast of NSW. On Friday, it emerged the vessels were going to conduct live fire testing, leading to AirServices Australia issuing a warning to commercial aircraft to avoid the area. A Defence spokesman said the PLA-N Jiangkai-class frigate Hengyang, the Renhai-class Cruiser named Zunyi and the Fuchi-class replenishment vessel Weishanhu (Task Group 107) were operating to the east of Australia, in the Tasman Sea. He said Defence were made aware the task group issued a radio broadcast on a civil aircraft channel about its intent to conduct live firing activity about 640km off Eden, prompting Airservices Australia to issue the Hazard Advisory. The spokesman said China did not inform Defence about its intent, and they had not been provided with any further information. The spokesman said live fire activity had most likely ceased and no weapon firings were heard or seen, though a floating surface target had been deployed and subsequently recovered by the PLA-N. “Defence will continue to monitor the Task Group while it remains in the vicinity of Australia’s maritime approaches,” the spokesman said.