South China Sea: Vietnam criticises China, Philippines for ‘violating its sovereign rights’ over their maritime conduct

Name: The Philippines anchors buoys in disputed South China Sea to counter Beijing’s claims
Uploaded: 2023-05-18T10:45:09.000Z
Duration: 3 min 47 s
Description: The Philippines anchors buoys in disputed South China Sea to counter Beijing’s claims

Chinese and Vietnamese vessels confronted each other in recent days on multiple occasions as a Chinese research ship moved within Hanoi’s exclusive economic zone

The Philippines was also rebuked for placing navigational buoys in five areas of its EEZ to assert sovereignty over the disputed Spratly Islands, which Vietnam claims

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Reuters

Published: 6:45pm, 18 May 2023

Vietnam criticised on Thursday the recent conduct in the South China Sea of a Chinese research ship and the Philippines coastguard, accusing its neighbours of separate actions that were violating its sovereign rights.

Tensions are currently high in contested parts of the South China Sea, one of the world’s most important trade routes and a conduit for more than US$3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce.

Chinese and Vietnamese vessels confronted each other in recent days on multiple occasions as a Chinese research ship moved within Hanoi’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), which experts said was likely a survey that. Such a survey would usually be considered hostile if conducted without notification.

[Chinese vessels] were violating the sovereign rights and jurisdictions of Vietnam

Pham Thu Hang, Vietnam foreign ministry spokesman

Asked for comment, Vietnam’s foreign ministry spokesperson Pham Thu Hang told a press conference those vessels were “violating the sovereign rights and jurisdictions of Vietnam”, which was taking “appropriate measures” to defend its rights.

China had said that scientific research was a normal activity in areas under Chinese jurisdiction.

China claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea with a “nine-dash line” on maps that stretches more than 1,500km off its mainland and cuts into the exclusive economic zones of Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia. An international arbitral ruling in 2016 dismissed that line as having no legal basis.

03:47

The Philippines anchors buoys in disputed South China Sea to counter Beijing’s claims

The Philippines was also rebuked for placing navigational buoys in five areas of its EEZ to assert sovereignty over the hotly disputed Spratly Islands, parts of which Vietnam also lays claim to.

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