US calls for ‘regular’ missile launch notification process after China’s ICBM test

The United States and France have said they were given advance notification of China’s intercontinental ballistic missile test this week while other countries, including Japan, Australia and New Zealand, have asked for an explanation from China.

The US said the warning had helped to “avoid miscalculation” and was “step in the right direction”, but it wanted a more regular arrangement to give advance notice of future missile and space launches.

The People’s Liberation Army launch was China’s first known ICBM test in 44 years. On Thursday, China’s military released images of the missile but did not say what its trajectory had been or where it landed in the Pacific.

However, France has confirmed that it landed near French Polynesia’s exclusive economic zone.

French Polynesia President Moetai Brotherson told Agence France-Presse the missile “fell not far from … the Marquesas Islands” and that Beijing had notified the French authorities before the launch.