The series of live fire drills were conducted off a Chinese warship flotilla diverted 49 commercial flights on February 21, with Labor now under political attack over when the Australian Defence Force was alerted of the drills, and when government ministers were told. A Virgin Australia pilot initially alerted Airservices Australia to the firing exercises at 9.58am last Friday, however these were not picked up by the ADF, who were only alerted to the drills at 10.10am. Defence Minister Richard Marles has confirmed Australia has made representations to the Chinese government over the inadequate notice given for the drills. However speaking to the ABC, Mr Xiao said China did not break any international laws, which don’t require countries to give notice for running drills on the high seas. He also said Chinese naval vessels would continue running exercises in open waters and said “there should be no over-reading into this”. “I don’t see there’s any reason why the Chinese side should feel sorry about that, or even to think about to apologise for that,” he told the ABC. “The vessels conducted drills in a way that is in compliance with international law and international practice. They did make prior notification to the public in a way that is in accordance with international practices. “Different countries have a different practice and based on the nature of the drill, size of the drill, and the scope of the drill — my view is that the Chinese naval certification advice was appropriate”. Mr Xiao said China’s drills were “normal practice” for Navy fleets in many countries. “I think our naval vessels (are) present in this part of the world, just like they’re present in many other parts of the world,” he said. “They are part of the efforts to train, to practice and to rehearse ... there should be no overreading into this.” The ADF first revealed it was tracking two People Liberation Army-Navy frigates and a replenishment vessel off Queensland about two weeks ago. The ships have since navigated down the east coast, passing within 270km of Sydney, and reportedly carried out the much-discussed live fire drills in the Tasman Sea. More to come