How Vietnam and China coastguards cosied up, but now confront each other

The crews from the Vietnamese and Chinese coastguards shook hands and took photos when they met last month, sharing platters of fruit and raising their glasses for a toast. Now, they are in a stand-off in the South China Sea.

"The two sides were very happy and united," Lieutenant Colonel Phan Duy Cuong, the operations assistant of Vietnam's coastguard command, said of the April 15 ceremony. "We toasted each other with wine. They went on our boat and we went on theirs."

Ships 8003 and 2007 sailed alongside two Chinese coastguard vessels for three days in the Gulf of Tonkin. A month later, at least one of those Chinese boats has been spotted helping guard an oil rig that Vietnam is demanding be removed from contested waters about 225km off its coast, Cuong said.

The dispute over the rig near the Paracel Islands reflects a renewed chill between the two nations after efforts to draw them closer together, including a flurry of official visits last year. Both China and the US have targeted Vietnam as a potential partner to bolster their influence in the region.

Cuong has been assigned to boat 8003 since it left Hai Phong port on May 5 to patrol the waters west of the Paracel Islands.

Over three days last week, the ship was chased by the Chinese coastguard five times as it attempted to break through a perimeter around the rig. The Chinese ships got as close as 400 metres to the Vietnamese craft, blasting their horns and ordering it to retreat. Other ships were rammed, Cuong said. Both sides have said they used water cannons. China has accused Vietnam of ramming its ships.

"We were working together just days before, but now there is a line dividing us," Cuong said on board boat 8003, which carried a crew of 50, plus 100 live chickens in a pen at the stern. "I'm very sad." While on the joint patrol in April, the boats together inspected Chinese and Vietnamese fishing boats.