MOSCOW, Aug 4 take a close look at the case of a group of Filipino demonstrators who tore up the Vietnamese national flag in front of the Vietnamese embassy in Manila.
The protests were organized the day before after reports in the local Philippine media about the alleged «militarization» of Vietnam in the South China Sea.
«The red flag with a yellow star is the sacred national flag of Vietnam. The act of vandalizing the Vietnamese national flag is an insult to the feelings of the Vietnamese people and should be severely condemned,» Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Phum Thu Hong said. She is quoted by the Asian News Network.
The diplomat stressed that Vietnam asks the Philippines to «sternly look into this matter by taking effective measures to prevent behavior that could affect the development of a strategic partnership between the two countries.» She also stated that the Foreign Ministry has no information about the source in the Vietnamese Ministry of Defense, which was quoted by the Philippine media.
The South China Sea has been a subject of controversy in East and Southeast Asia for many years. China, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines are involved to varying degrees in this dispute.