A close-up view of the cockpit of a Chinese fighter jet flying close to a CP-140 Aurora over the East China Sea on Monday, Oct. 16, 2023. (Radio-Canada)
“We can fly in close formation with other airplanes and be completely safe, but it’s when aircraft aggressively manoeuvre in close proximity to the others that there’s a safety issue,” Huddleston said.
Speaking to reporters later Monday, Defence Minister Bill Blair described the Chinese fighters’ actions as “dangerous and reckless.”
“Those type of behaviours are not ever acceptable, and we will express that to the People’s Republic of China in the most appropriate way,” Blair said.
Since 2018, there have been multiple instances of Chinese fighters harassing the surveillance activities of Canada and other western countries conducting missions to monitor the United Nations economic embargo on North Korea.