Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday criticised recent incidents of Chinese fighter jets buzzing a Canadian aircraft on a United Nations mission in the Indo-Pacific.
Speaking to reporters in Ottawa, Trudeau said, “China’s actions are irresponsible and provocative and we will continue to register strongly that they are putting people at risk while at the same time not respecting decisions by the UN.”
The Canadian plane was part of Operation NEON, Canada’s contribution to a coordinated multinational effort to support the implementation of UN Security Council sanctions imposed against North Korea.
It was buzzed repeatedly in recent times, as Chinese fighters drew aggressively close to the aircraft, and the “interactions”, Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) said in a statement last Wednesday, “were “unprofessional and/or put the safety” of the Royal Canadian Air Force personnel “at risk”.
Canada’s foreign minister Melanie Joly said on Friday the matter would be raised formally at the UN Security Council. She was quoted by the outlet Global News, which first reported the buzzing episodes, as saying, “Canada is doing this surveillance work in the context of a UN mission, and China being a part of the UN Security Council, we expect them to respect our work.”
Canada isn’t the only country that has raised concerns over the actions of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force. On Monday Bloomberg reported that Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had said his government reached out to Beijing over a “dangerous manoeuvre” between a Chinese fighter jet and an Australian surveillance plane over the South China Sea.
Australia’s department of defence had stated that a P-8 aircraft was undertaking routine maritime surveillance activity in the region on May 26 when it was intercepted by a Chinese J-16 fighter aircraft, according to the report.
“Such interactions, which occur in international airspace during UN-sanctioned missions, are of concern and of increasing frequency. These occurrences have also been addressed through diplomatic channels,” the CAF release added last week.
Relations between Canada and China have deteriorated in recent times, since senior Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou was detained in Vancouver in 2018 on charges of allegedly defrauding a financial institution to bypass sanctions upon the Iranian regime.
Days later, two Canadians, including a former diplomat, were arrested by China. Trudeau described that as “hostage diplomacy”.
After more than 1000 days in captivity and being charged with spying, they were released in September last year in what was seen as an exchange of prisoners as Meng returned to China after agreeing to a plea deal with American prosecutors.
The Canadian government announced last month it was banning two Chinese majors, Huawei and ZTE, from its advanced telecommunications network, including 5G or fifth generation infrastructure.
