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| Image: Flickr/ U.S. Department of Defense |
By Shannon Tiezzi
Can the U.S. and China come to agreements to lessen the risk of dangerous accidents at sea or in the air?
Citing a U.S. Department of Defense official, Reuters reports that Chinese and U.S. officials are meeting this week to talk about rules of the road for encounters in the air and at sea. Chinese and U.S. officials will gather at the Pentagon on Wednesday and Thursday for the discussion. According to the unnamed defense official, the working group will talk about “existing multilateral standards of behavior for air and maritime activities.”
The talks, though planned well in advance, will convene only days after the Pentagon complained of a “dangerous intercept” by a Chinese fighter jet of a U.S. P-8 patrol aircraft. According to Defense Department spokesman Admiral John Kirby, the Chinese fighter jet conducted a number of dangerous maneuvers (including a roll) within close proximity to the U.S. aircraft. The Chinese Defense Ministry called the complaint “totally groundless” and blamed the U.S. for conducting “massive and frequent close-in surveillance of China that endanger the two sides’ air and marine security.”
The incident, and the conflicting reports, highlight the urgent need for agreed-upon standards of conduct — both for routine encounters in international airspace and waters, and more generally to set a standard for surveillance missions. A series of dangerous meetings between U.S. and Chinese naval vessels (such as last year’s “Cowpens Incident”) and aircraft have set the scene for a deadly accident.
Read the full story at The Diplomat