Daily London
Australia is monitoring a Chinese flotilla that is near the Philippines but could be heading Down Under.
Defence Minister Richard Marles confirmed this afternoon that the ADF is tracking the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy task force, which was first reported by the Australian Financial Review last Thursday.
He said that, while the naval group is currently in the Philippine Sea, its destination is unknown, but could be Australia.
“We do not have a sense of where it is going,” Marles said.
“But we continue to monitor it as we monitor all movements until we know that the task groups are not coming to Australia.”
Marles added that it isn’t particularly unusual for the ADF to monitor a Chinese vessel.
He said the government was not going to give a running commentary on the movements of the PLA Navy.
”I want to put this into some context: we maintain constant maritime domain awareness in our own geographic areas of interest,” he said.
“And in that context, we will routinely monitor the movements of PLA-N vessels.
“And when there are improvements such as this, we will monitor them, particularly until we know that they are not coming in the vicinity of Australia.”
However, Marles insisted the ADF is properly equipped to monitor any ships that come close to Australia.
“We absolutely had an unprecedented level of surveillance of that task group (earlier this year) by the Royal Australian Navy,” he 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.
“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.”
