Tokyo, Jun 12: Tokyo on Thursday raised serious concerns over the incident of a near-miss collision between a Chinese aircraft and a Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force (MSDF) patrol plane over international waters in the Pacific and urged Beijing to avoid any such recurrence.

Addressing a press conference, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said that Japan's stance was conveyed to China through diplomatic and defence channels over the incident.

"The government has raised serious concerns with the Chinese side, including to the Chinese ambassador in Tokyo, through the vice minister of foreign affairs, and has strongly urged them to prevent such incidents from recurring," Hayashi said

"We decline to comment on what China intended (by the manoeuvres), but these peculiar approaches by the Chinese military aircraft could have caused a collision," Hayashi said.

The Chief Cabinet Secretary stated that Japan will continue "to spare no effort to ensure vigilance and surveillance activities in the airspace and waters surrounding Japan in order to resolutely defend Japan's territorial waters, airspace, and territorial rights."

Earlier this week, the Japanese Defence Ministry announced that it had spotted two Chinese aircraft carriers -- the Shandong and Liaoning conducting operations in the Pacific for the first time.

The Japanese Defence Ministry on Wednesday said that the Chinese military aircraft, which took off from the aircraft carrier Shandong, had a near miss with a Japanese patrol plane over the high seas in the Pacific, as it flew as close as 45 meters to the MSDF P-3C aircraft at the same altitude.

It further stated that the Chinese J-15 warplane also made other dangerous manoeuvres over the weekend, such as passing in front of an MSDF P-3C aircraft at the same altitude and with a distance of about 900 meters between the planes.

The Ministry said that Japan lodged a protest with China and "expressed serious concerns" since "these abnormal approaches by a Chinese military plane may cause an accidental collision."

According to Japanese media outlet Kyodo News, Japan has been on high alert with China's military expanding activities and the simultaneous operation of two of its aircraft carriers, the Shandong and Liaoning, in the Pacific.

(IANS)

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