Things are heating up between New Zealand and China. The island country on Saturday rejected Beijing’s allegations that it had carried out a military surveillance operation in Chinese airspace, ensuring that these UN-backed maneuvers were aimed at North Korea. Beijing said Friday that a New Zealand P-8A anti-submarine patrol aircraft had engaged in “close reconnaissance and airspace harassment operations” over the South and East China Seas.
These maneuvers “harmed China’s security interests, increased the risks of misunderstandings and errors of judgment and seriously disrupted the order of civil aviation in the airspace concerned,” said a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs during a press briefing.
New Zealand denies any disruption
To which the New Zealand military responded that the plane was carrying out a UN-mandated sanctions monitoring mission against North Korea in the region. “These activities are not aimed at China, but are intended to monitor evasion of United Nations sanctions against North Korea, which are taking place in the East China Sea and the South China Sea,” a military spokesperson said.
“The New Zealand Defense Force crew acted professionally and in accordance with international law and civil aviation procedures in force in the region,” he added. New Zealand Defense “has examined the routes taken and all available information. We have no data indicating that they have disrupted civil aviation,” according to the spokesperson, who indicated that a “dialogue” had taken place between Wellington and Beijing on this subject.
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