Germany’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Chinese Ambassador to protest against a recent incident where a Chinese warship used a laser to illuminate a German reconnaissance plane participating in the EU’s Red Sea mission. The German authorities deemed this behavior endangering the safety of personnel and disrupting the aircraft’s mission as “completely unacceptable.”
The event took place in early July when the German reconnaissance plane was conducting a routine mission. A Chinese warship that had appeared in the area multiple times without prior communication used a laser to illuminate the aircraft, forcing the mission to halt. The aircraft then safely landed at a base in Djibouti.
On social media platform X, the German Foreign Ministry stated, “Behavior that endangers the safety of German personnel and disrupts missions is completely intolerable.” The German government held talks with the Chinese Ambassador regarding the incident.
Germany’s Defense Ministry mentioned that the laser incident involved a Multi-Sensor Platform (MSP) reconnaissance plane operated by a private commercial company with German military personnel taking part. The plane has been deployed since October 2023 in the EU’s “ASPIDES” operation in the Red Sea region for reconnaissance and intelligence gathering. The mission, initiated in February 2024, aims to protect international ships from attacks by Houthi armed forces in Yemen.
According to the German magazine Der Spiegel, the incident occurred near the coast of Yemen. The Defense Ministry expressed that although the laser illumination did not cause any damage, it posed a potential threat to personnel and equipment. The MSP system has been redeployed to continue its mission, with the intelligence gathered playing a crucial role in enhancing maritime surveillance and situational awareness for allied forces.
Directing a laser into the cockpit of an aircraft can temporarily blind pilots during takeoff or landing. Roderich Kiesewetter, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the German Federal Parliament and a senior conservative party member, informed Politico that incidents of Chinese laser attacks are frequent, and summoning only the Ambassador by the Foreign Ministry is considered “insufficient.”
As of now, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has not responded to this incident, and the Chinese Embassy in Berlin has not provided a reply to media inquiries.
This is not the first time that Western countries have accused the Chinese military of using lasers to interfere with military aircraft. In 2020, the US Pacific Fleet stated that a Chinese warship deployed a laser to illuminate a US patrol aircraft in international airspace west of Guam, a claim that China denied.
The EU’s “ASPIDES” operation includes multiple countries such as Germany, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Earlier this year, the US carried out brief bombings against the Houthi armed forces to safeguard the freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.