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Manila summoned Beijing’s ambassador on Monday and filed a diplomatic protest after two collisions between Philippine and Chinese vessels in the South China Sea.
“We’re making full use of diplomatic processes… available to us. That includes summoning the Chinese ambassador, which we did this morning,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Teresita Daza said.
Meanwhile, China’s embassy in Manila also lodged a complaint with the Philippines after the collisions, it said in a statement.
The collisions occurred during a Philippine resupply mission to Philippine troops on the BRP Sierra Madre, a grounded former warship in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
According to the office of the Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, he has ordered his coastguard to investigate the collisions.
Marcos also called a for a meeting with security authorities on Monday to discuss the “latest violation by China” in the South China Sea, his office said.
Tensions in the South China Sea
The incidents occurred on Sunday near Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands — a group of largely uninhabited islands in the strategically important sea with various overlapping claims by the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan.
“Ayungin Shoal is part of our exclusive economic zone and continental shelf and we have sovereign rights and jurisdiction over it,” Daza said, using the Philippine name for the shoal that lies around 200 kilometers (124 miles) from the western Philippine island of Palawan — and around 1,000 kilometers from China.
The area has long been a source of dispute but China’s increasing presence in the region has stoked tensions to new highs.
Beijing has laid claim to almost the entire South China Sea, ignoring an international ruling from 2016 that there is no legal basis for its claims.
Trillions of dollars of international trade pass through this maritime region every year.
China blames Philippine vessel
While Manila claims China’s actions caused the incidents, Beijing alleges the Philippine boat deliberately caused trouble.
A Chinese diplomat met with a Philippine official on Monday and “made solemn representations…on the trespassing of the Philippine vessels into the Ren’ai Reef area…expressing strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition to the trespassing,” the embassy said, using China’s name for the disputed Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands.
According to Chinese state media citing the Foreign Ministry, a “slight collision” happened after the resupply boat ignored “multiple warnings and deliberately passed through law enforcement in an unprofessional and dangerous manner.”
In a separate incident, a Philippine coastguard ship escorting the routine resupply mission was “bumped” by a “Chinese Maritime Militia vessel,” according to the Philippine task force.
Jonathan Malaya, spokesperson at the National Security Council (NSC), said no one was injured in the incidents.
Malaya blamed China for “increasing tensions” in the South China Sea and asserted that China’s behavior led to Sunday’s collision.
ss/ab (AFP, Reuters)
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