By Laurie Chen
BEIJING (Reuters) – Recent live-fire drills by the Chinese navy in the Tasman Sea, between Australia and New Zealand, were “totally in line with international law”, a spokesperson of its defence ministry said on Thursday.
The comment by ministry spokesman Wu Qian at a briefing in Beijing follows concerns voiced by officials of both countries that they did not receive adequate warning of the drills in international waters that forced commercial airlines to divert flights.
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 Type 055 destroyer, China’s most advanced naval ship, firing its deck guns.
It is not yet known if it tested the cruise missiles among its armaments.
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.
(Reporting by Laurie Chen in Beijing and Greg Torode in Hong Kong; writing by Farah Master and Greg Torode; Editing by Kim Coghill)
