TAIPEI: Pakistan briefly closed its airspace to Taiwanese cargo and passenger flights, Taiwan said Thursday, suspecting China of being behind the unprecedented move.
"We suspect definitely China was behind this," Deputy Foreign Minister Chen Ming-chi told AFP after confirming that Pakistan had closed and reopened its airspace to Taiwanese airlines.
China Airlines and Eva Air normally fly over Pakistan on their Asia-Europe route.
Last weekend, however, they began rerouting their Europe-bound flights further south over the Gulf or further north over Russia, AFP analysis of flight tracking data shows.
Neither airline would confirm that Pakistan had closed or reopened its airspace when contacted by AFP.