After a bruising Asean meeting that only deepened divisions over the South China Sea, there was barely disguised mirth among some Filipino and Vietnamese envoys last Friday over news that a Chinese naval frigate had run aground on a disputed shoal near the Philippine island of Palawan.
Understandable, perhaps, given the roiling tensions between both countries and China in recent months, but the grounding of the Jianghu-class frigate Dongguan - which was successfully refloated on Sunday and is now heading north - is no laughing matter.
If anything, it underscores the growing risk of accidents and miscalculation across the South China Sea. Increasing numbers of naval vessels, coastguard ships, surveillance craft and fishing boats now ply troubled waters, their captains and crews ever more conscious of disputed sovereignty - and, in many cases, of the need to keep their flags flying.
For several years now, the risk of a deadly miscalculation, or an accident that, fuelled by nationalism, degenerates into something more extreme, has been exercising strategic minds across the region, without a solution. We are left to hope that common sense, aided by good communication, prevails - and any spark is quickly contained.
In this case, neither China nor the Philippines have seized the moment to attempt to turn the incident into something more dramatic. Beijing, not surprisingly, has avoided the megaphone diplomacy of recent weeks while the Philippines has avoided lodging a formal diplomatic protest. Its prominent offers of rescue assistance, backed by surveillance flights, were apparently enough of a show of sovereignty for Manila's ends.
That does not lessen the significance of the incident, however. It is a reminder that naval vessels still ply sensitive waters, however much publicity is given to the vaunted proliferation of coastguard and other paramilitary vessels - much less provocative than naval ships.