Vietnam has accused China of threatening safety of civilian flights over the disputed South China Sea by failing to properly inform its aviation authorities of Beijing’s recent test flights to a man-made island also claimed by Hanoi.
Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Le Hai Binh said that although a Chinese embassy representative did inform the ministry about the flights last month, prompting a protest from Hanoi, that did not extend to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam and threatened the safety of civil aviation.
The notification from the Chinese embassy “cannot substitute China’s notification to the appropriate air traffic services units of Vietnam in order to ensure the safety and regularity of flight operations,” the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam said in a statement late on Tuesday.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hong Lei (洪磊) on Monday told reporters that China’s three test flights to Fiery Cross Reef (Yongshu Reef, 永暑礁) — one of seven South China Sea features where China had carried out extensive land reclamation — were state aviation activities and had no restrictions under international law.
Hong said that Beijing informed Vietnamese aviation authorities on Dec. 28 and the Vietnamese foreign ministry two days later about them.
He said that Vietnam had failed to see “the professional, technical and civil nature of China’s inspection and test flights.”
Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Le Hai Binh disputed Hong and said that at the meeting with the Chinese embassy representative, Vietnam protested and demanded that China cancel the flights.
Binh said the flights violated Vietnam’s sovereignty over the islands, and demanded that China stop any such activities.
Vietnam and China, as well as Taiwan, claim the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), and the two, along with Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei, claim all or parts of the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島), which sit on potentially rich oil and gas resources and occupy one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
China’s increasing assertiveness has caused serious concerns among its neighbors and the US, which backs freedom of navigation and overflights in the South China Sea.
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