ADF monitoring Chinese task group in Philippine Sea
Chinese warships have again attracted the attention of the Australian Defence Force.
Chinese warships lurking in the Philippine Sea have nabbed the attention of the Australian Defence Force (ADF), Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles has confirmed.
Speaking to media on Monday, Mr Marles would not reveal how many ships were in the Chinese flotilla but said the ADF would monitor the ships “until we know that they are not coming in the vicinity of Australia”.
“I want to confirm today that Defence is monitoring a Chinese PLA-N task group, which is currently in the Philippine Sea,” he told reporters.
“But I also want to put this into some context – we maintain constant maritime domain awareness in the geographic areas of interest, South-East Asia, North-East Asia, the North-East Indian Ocean and the Pacific.
“And in that context, we will routinely monitor the movements of PLA vessels.
“And when there are movements such as this, we will monitor them, particularly until we know that they are not coming in the vicinity of Australia.”
He said the ADF did “not have a sense of where (the task group) is going” and refused to “get into hypotheticals” about whether the Chinese ships would circumnavigate Australia as others did earlier this year.
“I would say, in respect of … the task group that came … to the vicinity of Australia earlier this year, that we absolutely had an unprecedented level of surveillance of that task group by the Royal Australian Navy,” Mr Marles said.
“And we did do it in conjunction with our friends and allies, but that saw an unprecedented level of commitment of the Royal Australian Navy, and you can be assured that at any point in the future we will bring that same degree of determination and commitment to any journey that happens in our particular area.”
Originally published as ADF monitoring Chinese task group in Philippine Sea
