Share and Follow
Admiral David Johnston faced inquiries yesterday regarding the proximity of a naval flotilla to Australia’s exclusive economic zone, initially reported by The Australian Financial Review as being in the Philippine Sea last November.
The presence of these warships has sparked concerns about the Australian Defence Force’s (ADF) capacity to safeguard the nation’s extensive eastern coastline.
Admiral Johnston assured that the ADF had a comprehensive understanding of the flotilla’s movements as it navigated through the Pacific islands and then northward through the waters of Papua New Guinea. Importantly, no live-fire exercises were conducted by the flotilla.
“We had our aircraft deployed in the Western Pacific, accompanied by various methods that allowed us to monitor the task group’s movements,” Johnston stated.
He further noted that the flotilla’s operations, taking place so far from the Chinese mainland, highlight the expanding capabilities of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLA-N), which has experienced significant growth and modernization efforts in recent years.
“It’s a demonstration of its ability to operate much further from China’s shores than it has routinely done. It unquestionably is demonstrating into our region that the Chinese navy is capable of deploying,” he said.
“We judge the nature of its activities was both for internal training purposes as well as signalling to Australia and our region the capacity the Chinese military has.”
NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.