Australia has accused a Chinese fighter jet of releasing flares that almost hit one of its military aircraft flying over the South China Sea earlier this week.

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The Australian Defence Ministry expressed its concerns to Beijing about the incident, which took place on Tuesday (Feb 11). 

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‘Unsafe and unprofessional’

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In a statement, Canberra said that one of the Chinese J-16 fighter jets engaged in an “unsafe and unprofessional interaction” with one of its P-8A surveillance jets, posing a risk to its personnel. The ministry said that no one was injured in the incident and there was no damage to Australia's aircraft.

“Australia expects all countries, including China, to operate their militaries in a safe and professional manner,” the statement added.

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However, China alleged that the Australian aircraft “intentionally intruded” into its airspace, and Chinese jets responded in a “legitimate, lawful, professional, and restrained” manner.

Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles told Sky News on Thursday (Feb 13) that the flares fired by the Chinese plane passed the Australian jet at a less than 30 metres distance.

“The J-16 was so close that there's no way you could have been able to ensure that the flares did not hit the P-8,” he said.

“Had any of those flares hit the P-8, that would have definitely had the potential for significant damage to that aircraft,” he added.

First clash in nine months

The recent incident is the first clash between the military of the two countries in nine months.

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In May last year, Australia said that one of its helicopters, which was part of a Security Council mission, had to perform an evasive action to avoid flares from a Chinese J-10 fighter plane over the Yellow Sea.

In November 2023, Canberra also accused the Chinese navy of using sonar pulses in international waters off Japan, which injured Australian divers.

Monitoring Chinese vessels, says Australia

In a separate statement on Thursday (Feb 13), Australia said that it was monitoring three Chinese navy vessels that entered its maritime approaches.

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"Australia respects the rights of all states to exercise freedom of navigation and overflight in accordance with international law, just as we expect others to respect Australia's right to do the same," it said.

(With inputs from agencies)