TOKYO, Aug 7 The Philippines handed over to the Chinese Ambassador in that country, a verbal protest over the recent standoff in the disputed waters of the South China Sea by coast guard boats of the two countries, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Monday.
As previously reported, the other day, a Chinese patrol boat aimed a water cannon at the Philippine Coast Guard vessels, blocking their path.
«We will continue to defend our sovereignty, we will continue to defend our territorial rights in the face of all these challenges in accordance with international law,» ABS-CBN quoted the President of the Philippines as saying.
According to him, Marcos said at a press conference that Foreign Minister Enrique Manalo had met with Chinese Ambassador to Manila Huang Xilian and protested to him.
According to the TV channel, in 2022, the Philippines handed over 193 verbal protests to China in connection with the contradictions between the two countries in the South China Sea.
China has been arguing for decades with several countries of the Asia-Pacific region over the territorial ownership of a number of islands in the South China Sea, on the shelf of which significant hydrocarbon reserves have been discovered. We are talking about the Xisha archipelago (Paracel Islands), the Nansha (Spratly) and Huangyan Islands (Scarborough Reef). Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines are involved to varying degrees in this dispute.
The situation in the region is often complicated by the passage of US warships, which, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, violate international law and undermine China's sovereignty and security. Despite protests from Beijing, official Washington stated that the United States would sail wherever international law allowed.