A Chinese fighter plane has released flares “very close” to a Royal Australian Air Force plane carrying out surveillance in international airspace, with Defence minister Richard Marles labelling the actions “unsafe and unprofessional”.

Mr Marles told Sky News the incident took place over the South China Sea on Sunday, and the crew landed safely.

He said: “As it (the RAAF plane) was doing that, a PLA air force came alongside — that, in and of itself is pretty routine — it released flares, that of itself can be a reasonably standard interaction between two military aircraft.

“But on two occasions it released flares very close to the P-8 [the RAAF plane] and it’s really that, the proximity at which the flares were released which has given us cause to deem this unsafe and unprofessional.

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