Canada's defense minister has accused Chinese fighter jets of carrying out a “dangerous and reckless” interception of a Canadian military plane over international waters.
Bill Blair spoke after Canadian newspaper Global News said a Chinese plane came within five meters (16 feet) of a Canadian surveillance plane taking part in a UN operation aimed at enforce sanctions against North Korea.
The incident occurred in international waters off the coast of China, said Global, which had a crew on board the plane. Blair said that although the Chinese air force regularly interacts with planes participating in U.N. missions, Monday's incident put Canadian planes at significant risk.
“I am very concerned about the unprofessional way in which this was done,” Blair said.
“It was frankly dangerous and reckless. And this type of behavior is never acceptable and we will express it to the People's Republic of China in the most appropriate way,” he continued, without elaborating.
The Chinese Embassy in Ottawa did not respond to a request for comment on the Global News report.
In June 2022, the Canadian military accused Chinese warplanes of harassing its patrol planes as they monitored North Korea's sanctions evasions, sometimes forcing Canadian planes to divert from their flight path.
In May, the Pentagon said a Chinese fighter jet carried out an “unnecessarily aggressive” maneuver near a U.S. military aircraft over the South China Sea in international airspace. The meeting follows what Washington calls a recent trend of increasingly dangerous behavior by Chinese military aircraft.
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