Philippines Lodges Protest With Beijing Over Reports Of Chinese Boats Near Disputed Island

Philippines Lodges Protest With Beijing Over Reports of Chinese Boats Near Disputed Island

The Philippines has filed a diplomatic protest with Beijing after receiving reports of its army sighting more than 200 Chinese vessels since January near a disputed island in the South China Sea, Salvador Panelo, the president's spokesman, said on Monday

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st April, 2019) The Philippines has filed a diplomatic protest with Beijing after receiving reports of its army sighting more than 200 Chinese vessels since January near a disputed island in the South China Sea, Salvador Panelo, the president's spokesman, said on Monday.

Last week, the Philippines Armed Forces said they had sighted over 600 Chinese maritime militia vessels since January near the Philippines-occupied Pag-asa island, one of the territories of the disputed Spratly Islands, which are claimed by China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines. On Monday, Panelo clarified that the total number of spotted vessels was 275.

"The DFA [Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs] has already made a diplomatic protest in connection with the incident related to the so-called vessels being stationed there," Panelo said, as quoted by the Philippines News Agency

According to the news agency, Panelo will also meet with Zhao Jianhua, China's ambassador to the Philippines, later on Monday to clarify the situation.

Earlier in the day, Zhao said that the vessels were unarmed fishing boats.

The above-mentioned countries, with the addition of Brunei, have been in dispute over territories, including the Spratly and Paracel islands, in the South China Sea for decades. The sea is a major shipping route and home to fishing grounds that supply livelihoods of people across the region, and the island chains are potentially sources of unexplored mineral wealth.

China says it has historic claim to the territory, but in 2013, the Philippines sought international arbitration to settle the dispute, claiming that its geographical proximity to the Spratlys justified its claim to the islands. In 2016, a UN court backed the Philippines' case, but China boycotted the ruling.