Posted by: John Phoenix
By Sergey Lebedev – Sputnik
People’s Liberation Army fighter jets escorted a Dutch helicopter that violated Chinese airspace under the auspice of a UN mission. Beijing warned the Netherlands to avoid such incidents in the future.
The Dutch military has created a dangerous situation in the East China Sea after using a UN mission as a cover, Chinese Ministry of Defense representative Zhang Xiaogang has said.
He added that Beijing urges the Netherlands to limit any activities of their armed forces in the region and vowed decisive counter-measures in response to provocations near China’s territory.
The statement came in response to Amsterdam saying that one People’s Liberation Army helicopter and two fighter jets had approached a helicopter assigned to a Dutch frigate in the East China Sea.
The Dutch claimed that the incident happened in international airspace and that the vessel was overseeing the implementation of a UN Security Council resolution on North Korea sanctions. Beijing debunked these claims, explaining that the helicopter assigned to the Tromp-class frigate of the Royal Netherlands Navy entered its airspace east of Shanghai.
The command of the People’s Liberation Army had to use its fighter jets to expel the helicopter from the area after warning its crew.
“[These steps] were legal and purposeful, everything was done professionally and according to standards. It is the Netherlands not China who created the dangerous situation,” Zhang underlined.
He added that the Netherlands had used the UN mission as a pretext for power projection in regions that are under the jurisdiction of other countries.
“Dutch statements and activities have a malevolent nature, we condemn them and we’ve sent a demarche,” he stressed, adding that China will take decisive countermeasures on any future violations or provocations.
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