Chinese, US aircraft in 'unsafe' encounter

WASHINGTON. KAZINFORM Two US defense officials confirmed that there was an "unsafe" close encounter between a US Navy P-3 Orion aircraft and a Chinese surveillance aircraft in the general vicinity of the contested Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, CNN reports.

"The U.S. Navy P-3C was on a routine mission operating in accordance with international law," Maj. Rob Shuford, the spokesperson for US Pacific Command said.

"The Department of Defense and US Pacific Command are always concerned about unsafe interactions with Chinese military forces," he added. "We will address the issue in appropriate diplomatic and military channels."

A second official said that the American P-3 had to alter course to ensure that there wasn't an aerial collision.

While the Navy considers the encounter to be "unsafe," it does not assess that any malign intent was behind the incident, though the event was considered serious enough to be raised up the chain of command.

The official called encounters between US and Chinese aircraft like the one that took place Wednesday "extremely rare," noting that there were zero such incidents in 2015 and two in 2016. It was the first such instance of 2017.

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