South Korean Jets Scrambled As Chinese, Russian Planes Enter ADIZ

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff have stated to reporters that four Russian and four Chinese jets breached South Korea's air defence identification zone (ADIZ), resulting in the scrambling of South Korean air force jets. The Joint Chiefs confirmed that the Chinese and Russian aircraft did not enter South Korean airspace (which covers a smaller area, see map below).

• The joint patrol by Chinese and Russian aircraft is the sixth since they began in 2019 and the first since November 2022, and come as part of the 'no limit partnership' between the two countries outline by Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.
• The security situation in east Asia has become increasingly fraught in recent days, with trilateral exercises between the coast guards of the US, Japan, and Philippines drawing criticism from Beijing.
• Meanwhile, a high-profile incident in the strait of Taiwan, in which a Chinese vessel passed within 150 yards of the USS Chung-Hoon in "an unsafe manner," according to US military officials raised the temperature further.
• US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart Li Shangfu refused to hold a meeting at the IISS Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore, with only the briefest of handshakes taking place putting any signs of a nascent thawing in relations back in the deep freeze.

Map of South Korean ADIZ and Airspace

Source: BBC, South Korean MoD, Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fishery