Royal Navy Escorts Chinese Warships Through English Channel

Image courtesy: Rob Verkerk/Twitter.

Royal Navy vessel HMS Richmond was deployed to monitor a Chinese flotilla through the English Channel.

The type-23 frigate shadowed three Chinese ships over the weekend as they made their way to the Baltic Sea for a series of drills with the Russian navy.

It follows an incident last year, when the Royal Navy escorted a Russian vessels near the British coast.

The flotilla then headed through the North Sea, where they were spotted being escorted by Dutch ships.

The 052D class of ships are the nation's "most advanced guided-missile destroyer", according to Chinese state-run newspaper the Global Times, and will be participating in a week of activities with their Russian counterparts.

China and Russia have held yearly joint training operations since 2012, although it is nearly two years since Chinese ships last visited the North and Baltic Seas.

The Chinese ships were fresh from having participated in a training mission around the Mediterranean.

In a statement, the Ministry of Defence said:

"We can confirm that HMS Richmond has escorted a Chinese Navy Task Group through the UK area of interest."