Australia rejects China’s claim Japan may have fired sonar pulse at military divers

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he was “not swayed” by Chinese ambassador Xiao Qian’s comment a day earlier that a Chinese navy ship did not use its sonar while Australian divers were in the water, and a Japanese boat could have been the source.

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Albanese said on Thursday, “I think it is very clear what occurred.”

“I stand by the comments I made at the time, that it was wrong, that it shouldn’t have occurred,” he said in a media briefing.

Australia has said medical assessments found minor injuries to the divers involved were likely caused by the Chinese destroyer’s sonar.

Japan’s embassy in Australia said it did not know what Xiao said.

“Generally speaking, however, Japan and Australia as the core of a partnership of like-minded countries in the Indo-Pacific region, unambiguously abide by the rule of law and have been promoting security cooperation across a wide range of areas,” an embassy spokesman said in a statement.