New Chinese oil rig to arrive in South China Sea
Iran Press TV
Fri Jun 20, 2014 9:22AM GMT
Another Chinese oil rig is to arrive in the South China Sea amid an increasingly heated territorial dispute between the country and Vietnam.
According to Chinese authorities the oil rig would reach the sea on Friday after Beijing's dispatch seven weeks ago of a rig into the waters Hanoi claims.
The move came after negotiations in Hanoi between Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi and Vietnamese Foreign Minister and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung over the dispute ended inconclusively on Wednesday.
A statement posted online by the China Maritime Safety Administration said that the new rig was sent on the same day. However, it is still unclear whether the rig will be deployed in waters that are in dispute.
Meanwhile, China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Thursday that the rig's operations would take place "within the coastal waters off China's Hainan Island" which is off the southern tip of the country.
Ties between China and Vietnam have been strained over the oil rig row.
Hanoi has called on Beijing to withdraw the rig, which is in waters near the Paracel Islands that Vietnam claims.
China and Vietnam are locked in a longstanding territorial dispute in the South China Sea over islands and waters claimed by both countries. China claims sovereignty over almost the whole of the South China Sea, which is also claimed in part by Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines. The waters are believed to sit atop vast reserves of oil and gas.
China is also engaged in another territorial dispute with Japan over a chain of islands in the East China Sea.
MR/HMV
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