Germany summoned the Chinese ambassador to the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday after saying China\u2019s military had laser targeted a German aircraft taking part in an European Union operation in the Red Sea. <\/p>\n
The flare up in tensions comes as concerns mount in the EU about Chinese influence on critical technologies and security infrastructure in Europe. <\/p>\n
\u201cPutting German personnel at risk and disrupting the operation is completely unacceptable,\u201d said Germany\u2019s Foreign Ministry on social media platform X. <\/p>\n
There was no immediate response from China\u2019s Foreign Ministry, and the Chinese Embassy in Berlin did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. <\/p>\n
Germany\u2019s Defense Ministry said the aircraft, taking part in the EU\u2019s ASPIDES mission which protects international sea routes in the Red Sea, had been contributing a Multi-Sensor Platform, or \u201cflying eye\u201d for reconnaissance of the area since October. <\/p>\n
A Chinese warship, which had been encountered several times in the area, had laser targeted the aircraft with no reason or prior communication during a routine mission flight, said a ministry spokesperson. The incident took place at the beginning of July. <\/p>\n
\u201cBy using the laser, the warship put at risk the safety of personnel and material,\u201d said the spokesperson, adding the mission flight was aborted as a precaution and the aircraft landed safely at a base in Djibouti. <\/p>\n
The deployment of the MSP in ASPIDES has since been resumed, he said. <\/p>\n
The MSP is operated by a civilian commercial service provider and German armed forces personnel are involved, said the ministry, adding the data collected significantly contributes to awareness for partners. <\/p>\n
China has previously denied accusations of firing or pointing lasers at US planes. Incidents involving a European NATO member and China are more unusual. <\/p>\n
In 2020, the US Pacific Fleet said a Chinese warship had fired a laser at a US naval patrol aircraft flying in airspace above international waters west of Guam. China said that did not accord with the facts. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Germany summoned the Chinese ambassador to the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday after saying China\u2019s military…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":11155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/streetfingazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/streetfingazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/streetfingazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/streetfingazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/streetfingazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/streetfingazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/streetfingazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/streetfingazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/streetfingazette.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}