Vietnam issues protest against Beijing survey in South China Sea

Aug 9, 2011, 4:51 GMT

Hanoi - Hanoi has issued a formal protest after Chinese ships carried out a scientific survey in contested territory in the South China Sea, a government website said Tuesday.

'China has violated our sovereignty and jurisdiction rights,' Nguyen Phuong Nga, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, was quoted as saying. 'Vietnam asks China to immediately cease and refrain from recurrence of similar acts.'

The two countries have been in negotations since June 26 over the territorial dispute, which has grown more heated in recent months after Vietnam accused its neighbour of cutting the cables of one of its own survey vessels operating in the area.

The Chinese research vessel Tan Bao Hao surveyed an area stretching from the western part of the Paracel Islands to the northern part of the Spratly archipelago from June 13 to July 30, Beijing's state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

The potentially mineral-rich islands are also the subject of conflicting claims by Taiwan and the Philippines.

Nga said officials from the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry had met representatives from the Chinese side to complain about the survey.

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