MIRI – Just days after 16 military aircraft belonging to China were detected illegally flying in Malaysia’s maritime zone, a coast guard vessel from the nuclear superpower has been reported to have encroached into our waters off Miri.
Borneo Post reported Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) Miri head Md Fauzi Othman as saying that it received a report on the matter on June 4.
According to him, the encroachment by the Chinese vessel took place near Beting Patinggi Ali, located just 84 nautical miles off the coast of Miri.
“Yes, I can confirm that we had received a report on the (Chinese) coast guard encroaching into our waters on June 4. Our assets, including those from the Royal Malaysian Navy. have been monitoring the situation closely,” he said.
Fauzi said the assets are placed near Beting Patinggi Ali all year round to monitor the area to ensure the country’s sovereignty and security.
Previously on May 31, 16 China military aircraft had encroached on Malaysia’s maritime zone and were detected by Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) defence radar, forcing the latter to scramble jets to intercept.
RMAF had said that the planes – Iluyshin II-76 and X’ian Y-20 models – were flying in tactical formation at a distance of 60 nautical miles from each other, between 23,000 and 27,000 feet at a speed of 290 knots.
“They were flying over Singapore’s FIR (Flight Information Region – a section of Indonesian airspace managed by Singapore) before entering Malaysia maritime zone and continued to pass the Kota Kinabalu FIR to Sarawak coastal areas.
“Their flight path changed above a small island called Beting Patinggi Ali, which is on Malaysian soil off the coast of Sarawak,” RMAF chief General Tan Sri Ackbal Abdul Samad had said then.
On June 2, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Kuala Lumpur said the flight by the 16 aircraft over the hotly contested waters was routine training and did not target any country.
A day later, Wisma Putra summoned the Chinese ambassador to Malaysia and handed over Malaysia’s protest note in response to the incident. – The Vibes, June 8, 2021
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