Bill Blair is sworn in as Canada’s Minister of National Defence, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sits, during a cabinet shuffle at Rideau Hall, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, July 26, 2023.
REUTERS/Blair Gable/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsOTTAWA, Oct 16 (Reuters) - The interception of a Canadian military plane by Chinese fighter jets over international waters on Monday was unacceptable, dangerous and reckless, said Defence Minister Bill Blair.
In June 2022, Canada's military accused Chinese warplanes of harassing its patrol aircraft as they monitored North Korea sanction evasions, sometimes forcing Canadian planes to divert from their flight paths.
In May, the Pentagon said a Chinese fighter jet carried out an "unnecessarily aggressive" maneuver near a U.S. military plane over the South China Sea in international airspace.
The encounter followed what Washington calls a recent trend of increasingly dangerous behavior by Chinese military aircraft.
Persons:
Bill Blair, Justin Trudeau, Blair Gable, Blair, David Ljunggren, Ismail Shakil, Cynthia Osterman
Organizations:
National Defence, Rideau Hall, REUTERS, Rights OTTAWA, Canada's Global, North, Canadian, Global, Pentagon, Washington, Thomson
Locations:
Ottawa , Ontario, Canada, Canadian, North Korea, China, People's Republic of China, Ottawa, Chinese, U.S, South