China ambassador Xiao Qian says Beijing didn’t break international law over live fire drills in the Tasman Sea

China’s ambassador to Australia says Beijing did not break any rules in its live fire drills in the Tasman Sea, and there is “no reason” for an apology.

China’s ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian has asserted Beijing has done nothing wrong over its live fire drills in the Tasman Sea, urging “there should be no over-reading into this”, and declaring China had nothing to apologise for.

The series of live fire drills were conducted off a Chinese warship flotilla diverted 49 commercial flights on February 21, with Labor now under political attack over when the Australian Defence Force was alerted of the drills, and when government ministers were told.

A Virgin Australia pilot initially alerted Airservices Australia to the firing exercises at 9.58am last Friday, however these were not picked up by the ADF, who were only alerted to the drills at 10.10am.

However speaking to the ABC, Mr Xiao said China did not break any international laws, which don’t require countries to give notice for running drills on the high seas.

As of Friday morning, Anthony Albanese confirmed the frigates were now 593km southwest of Adelaide, just outside the border of Australia’s exclusive economic zone.

The flotilla will continue to be shadowed by Anzac-class frigate HMAS Stuart.

Chinese Ambassador Xiao Qian said China had not broken any international laws. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The Prime Minister also said Chinese naval vessels would continue running exercises in open waters and “there should be no over-reading into this”.

“I don’t see there’s any reason why the Chinese side should feel sorry about that, or even to think about to apologise for that,” he told the ABC.

“The vessels conducted drills in a way that is in compliance with international law and international practice. They did make prior notification to the public in a way that is in accordance with international practices.

“Different countries have a different practice and based on the nature of the drill, size of the drill, and the scope of the drill — my view is that the Chinese naval certification advice was appropriate”.

Mr Xiao said China’s drills were “normal practice” for Navy fleets in many countries.

“I think our naval vessels (are) present in this part of the world, just like they’re present in many other parts of the world,” he said.

“They are part of the efforts to train, to practice and to rehearse … there should be no over-reading into this.”

The series of live fire drills conducted off a Chinese flotilla on February diverted 49 commercial flights after Airservices Australia were notified of the exercises. Picture: Australian Defence Force

The ADF first revealed it was tracking two People Liberation Army-Navy frigates and a replenishment vessel off Queensland about two weeks ago.

The ships have since navigated down the east coast, passing within 270km of Sydney, and reportedly carried out the much-discussed live fire drills in the Tasman Sea.

While Labor has made advances mending the Chinese-Australian economic relationship through the removal of Chinese tariffs on Australian barley, beef and lobster, Mr Albanese said Australia “disagreed” with China regarding the lack of notice given about the drills and had made these points clear.

“Let’s be very clear, I’ve said about the relationship with China (that) we will co-operate where we can. We’ll disagree where we must, and we’ll engage in our economic interest here. We have disagreed with China re. the notice that was given,” he said.

“We acknowledge as well that it is within international law. You can’t selectively support international law and the Chinese actions are within that, but we’ve made it very clear that we expect more notice to have been given.”

On Thursday, Mr Marles said it was “very clear” the notice given for the drills was “inadequate,” despite complying with international law.

Foreign governments typically give Canberra 24-48 hours notice of naval exercises near Australia.

“And it was on the basis of that we made representations both to China through their embassy in Canberra and through our embassy in Beijing, and indeed between our two foreign ministers.

“And while it does comply with international law, it’s not the standard that we operate by.”