Commodore Shane Arndell: Royal New Zealand Navy's Maritime Component Commander discusses Navy vessel being followed by Chinese Warships

We learnt this week that A New Zealand Navy vessel was followed by 7 Chinese Warships while patrolling Asian waters.

The HMNZS Aotearoa had crossed through the Taiwan Strait, and was patrolling international waters to curb North Korean war programmes. 

Commodore Shane Arndell told Ryan Bridge that this is a routine practice, and communication was open between the HMNZS Aotearoa and the Chinese fleet. 

'We communicate, we let each other know what we're doing, we keep it all nice and safe and everything is respectful.'

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We learned this week that a New Zealand Navy vessel
was followed around by no less than seven Chinese warships
while patrolling in waters through Asia. The HGM men's it
is ALTAUA had crossed through the Taiwan Strait was patrolling
international waters this to try and curb North Korean war programs.
Commodore Shane ardnil is the Royal New Zealand Navy's Maritime

(00:20):
Component Commander and joins me. Now, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Thank you, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
So were you expecting Chinese company?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yes, indeed we planned for it to happen because it's
a common occurrence up on that part of the world.
Everyone's just watching what each nation does, and when we're
going through the acclaimed orders, they like to make sure
they know what everyone's doing in their patch of order.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Were you in the Taiwan Strait.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
The ship didn't go through the Taiwan straight Yes, how
often do you do that? So we did that on
a regular basis, and it's all part of our efforts
to uphold the international walls based system, which means that's
international waters. So we have every right just as anybody
else does, to transit through that piece of water.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
What sort of ships did they have, What sort of
capability did they have?

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Oh, pretty much the same as what we have frigates
and tankers. So whatever ships available, they will normally what
we would say, they will hand over between ships. So
even though the number says seven, that's pretty normal because
when you look at archie at I having covered four
hundred and ten thousand square kilometers, that's a lot of
water for one ship to cover alone. So the Chinese

(01:32):
would have just been handing over between ships to track
her as she was in that part of the world.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Do you communicate with them at all?

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Here? We do just on normal open radio over a
VHF circuit. We communicate. We let each other know what
we're doing, so we keep it all nice and safe
and everything is respectful between both ships that may be
talking to each other.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
When they first contact you, what are they saying?

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Oh, they ask us what are we doing? The fact
that we're inside Chinese claimed waters, and then we just
respond with the usual witches around. It's open water and
we have a right to freedom of passage and we're
just exercising those rights.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Do you see this area of the world escalating or
reaching some sort of boiling point. What are you seeing
out there?

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Definitely what we're seeing is in line with what you
read in the media. Things aren't as comfortable as they
used to be. So there is a hot and alert
I suppose for the ships traveling up there, so we're
more aware of what's going on around us. Then we're
keeping ourselves better informed, just so we don't get any
cases of miscalculation and we're respecting each other's barriers and boundaries.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Have you had any close calls on miss calculation.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
No, not at all, not at all. Everything we've done
has been a safe and professional.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Are you guys friendly when you chat?

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yeah, definitely, Mariners of the Sea. English is a common language,
so we do can municate and there's certainly that The
tone of it is, you know, being friendly and making
sure that they are understanding what we're saying and there's
no confusion.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
You're there. I mean the UN the Security Council sanctions
against North Korea enforcing those. Have you had any success
in that on that front of late.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yes, so I said I was last mission. She managed
to intercept to illegal transhipment of elicted cargo. There's not
a whole lot we can do up there. But what
we can do is we can announce out there that
what these ships are doing is against U N. Security
Council resolutions and that they're breaking the law, and basically

(03:42):
that they are being monitored and we are reporting those
illegal transhipment of ellictic cargo to and from the DPRK.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
But nothing actually happens to them. They just carry on
their way.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
There has been a couple of cases where they have
been incepted and some of those ships have been deregistered,
but as you know, there's quite a dark fleet out there,
so you know, tracking down ownership of those and people
actually owning up to that illegal activity is quite hard.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
What's in them? Is it oil or do you not know?

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Now? A majority of it it's oil, and it's sort
of coming from It's coming from all parts of the world, actually,
but it's normally it's out of Russia or coming in
through out of the Indian Ocean and around that part
of the world.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
Commodore, I'm fascinated by this area of the world. I
spent time living in Beijing and we talk about it
a lot on the show. What's it like to actually
be there?

Speaker 2 (04:37):
You know, what Ryn is pretty much like what you've
probably experienced. You know, we make them out to be
all big, bad people, but actually it's a friendly country
when you're there, and we do and we have in
the past, done port visits. I've been there myself. It's
a great experience and the people are very friendly.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
Doesn't sound like we're going to go to war anytime soon?

Speaker 2 (04:58):
Well, I hope not. You know what, no one wants
more and we try to do everything to minimize the risk.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
Absolutely a commodore. Really appreciate your time tonight. Thank your commodore,
Shane Mdel, who's with us from the Navy. For more
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