Hanoi - A squabble over territory in the South China Sea escalated on Friday when Vietnam announced a live ammunition drill in an apparent reponse to China's demand that the Vietnamese halt all oil exploration in the area.
The verbal clash between the two communist neighbours follows a similar one betwen China and Philippines earlier in the week over another area of the South China Sea, where several countries are eyeing potentially rich oil and gas reserves.
The disputes generally pit China against its neighbours and have pulled in the United States, which has said it considers some of China's sea claims to be an infringement of international waters and a possible damper on international trade.
Vietnam said it would carry out two exercises totalling nine hours on Monday in an area off the country's central Quang Nam province. The announcement on the website of the state-owned Northern Maritime Safety Corp. warned boats and ships to stay out of the area. It was the first time Vietnam has issued such an alert about conducting live-fire maritime drills.
It came a day after China and Vietnam traded diplomatic punches, with each demanding that the other stay out of waters they claim.
China had accused Vietnam of endangering its fishermen's lives. Earlier on Thursday, Vietnam slammed China for interfering with its seismic survey off the central Vietnamese coast, saying the Chinese fishing boat supported by two patrol boats had damaged an exploration cable on the state-owned Vietnamese research boat.
Vietnam said it was the second time China had hindered the operation of an oil and gas exploration boat in two weeks, adding that its actions were “completely premeditated” and accusing it of flaring regional tensions in the South China Sea.
Hanoi says both incidents occurred well within the 200 nautical miles guaranteed to Vietnam as an exclusive economic zone by international law.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the Chinese fishing boat crew had instead been in waters around the Spratly Islands, which are claimed by China and Vietnam and some other Asian nations. He said the crew had merely been protecting itself after being dragged backward for over an hour by a Vietnamese oil and gas exploration vessel - one, he said, that was “illegally working at the scene.”
“The claims made by Vietnam are complete misrepresentations of the truth. As is known to all, China has indisputable sovereignty rights over the Spratly Islands and the waters nearby,” Hong said.
“It needs to be pointed out that in illegally exploring for oil and gas and forcing out Chinese fishing boats from the Wan'an bank of the Spratly Islands, Vietnam has seriously violated China's sovereignty and maritime rights,” he said.
“China demands that Vietnam stop all invasive activities,” Hong said.
Last weekend, thousands of Vietnamese marched in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in rare demonstrations demanding that China stop invading Vietnam's territory.
On Thursday, China denied an allegation by Filipino officials that Chinese forces had intruded into Philippines-claimed areas around the Spratly Islands six times since February and of firing shots at least once. Beijing said it would use violence only when attacked.
Although the tension is unlikely to escalate beyond a war of words, the conflict could draw in the United States, which worries that the disputes could hurt access to one of the world's busiest sea lanes.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said last year that the peaceful resolution of disputes over the Spratly and Paracel island chains was in the American national interest. - Sapa-AP