Australia lodges protest as Chinese fighter jet releases flares 'close' to its plane

Canberra [Australia], October 20 (ANI): Australia on Monday lodged a diplomatic protest with Beijing after a Chinese jet fighter released flares close to an Australian surveillance plane in the South China Sea.

As per the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, this is the latest in a string of encounters between the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and the Chinese military.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said that nobody was harmed, but said the Chinese action was "unsafe and unprofessional".

Marles was cited as saying by the ABC news that an Australian P-8 surveillance plane was conducting a routine patrol over the South China Sea when it was approached by a People's Liberation Army fighter jet.

Marles said Australia was deliberately publicising the encounter with the PLA as part of the government's broader strategy in response to dangerous behaviour by China's military.

Last month, a Canadian frigate and an Australian destroyer sailed through the Taiwan Strait, prompting protests from Beijing, China's state-run media had reported.

Chinese military forces surveilled the transit, according to state-run Global Times.

The transit "sent wrong signals and heightened security risks, and the theater's forces remain on high alert at all times and will resolutely safeguard China's national sovereignty, security, and regional peace and stability," Global Times reported, citing a statement from the People's Liberation Army's Eastern Theater Command spokesman Senior Col. Shi Yi.

Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is set to meet with US President Donald Trump in Washington DC, on Monday. (ANI)

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