Australia and New Zealand have sounded the alarm after China confirmed it successfully tested a ballistic missile carried by a strategic nuclear submarine in international waters in the Pacific Ocean.
Chinese state media Xinhua reported that the testing is part of China's annual military exercise, and it had alerted relevant countries in advance, in accordance with international law.
Xinhua described the launch as a "routine arrangement" of China's annual military training and said it was not directed against any specific country or target.
This comes after Australia and Fiji signed a major defence alliance earlier in the day, committing each country to come to the other's aid in case either is attacked.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the Australian government had been advised in advance by China of the test.
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"Australia has been clear with China that we regard this as destabilising to the region," she told reporters on Monday, moments before the launch was confirmed.
"This proposed test is in the context of a rapid military buildup by China, which is lacking in the transparency and reassurance as to intent that the region expects."
Wong said the test was "inconsistent" with Pacific leaders' requests for the ocean to be one "of peace".
That statement was echoed by New Zealand foreign minister Winston Peters.
"It appears that, despite our long-standing concerns about this type of activity, China carried out the test within hours of informing us," he said in a statement.
"The Pacific is an Ocean of Peace and we are deeply concerned by China's testing of nuclear-capable weapons into the South Pacific."
Japan's government said it had been notified of the missile launch and urged China to reconsider.
"We expressed our grave concern over the Chinese military's increased activity," Tokyo said, adding that Japan's Coast Guard had been notified on Sunday by Chinese authorities about falling space debris that could fall within Japan's exclusive economic zone.
Japan's Kyodo news agency on Monday reported, citing a Japanese government source, that the missile had landed outside Japan's EEZ.
China's elite Rocket Force fired a dummy warhead into the sea near French Polynesia in September 2024, its first long-range missile launch over international waters in more than 40 years.
— With additional reporting by Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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