Philippines, China trade blame after vessels collide in the South China Sea

The Star

The Philippines and China on Monday (Aug 19) accused each other of ramming vessels and performing dangerous manoeuvres in the South China Sea, the latest flare-up after the two nations had agreed to try to ease tensions and manage disagreements at sea.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

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00:00The Philippines and China on Monday accused each other of ramming vessels

00:04and performing dangerous manoeuvres in the South China Sea,

00:08the latest flare-up after the two nations had agreed to try to ease tensions at sea.

00:14China's Coast Guard said a Philippine vessel had ignored its repeated warnings

00:19and deliberately collided with a Chinese vessel.

00:23The Philippines disputed Beijing's account,

00:26saying that two of its Coast Guard vessels encountered unlawful and

00:30aggressive manoeuvres from Chinese vessels near Sabina Shoal.

00:34They said the incident happened while their vessels were on their way to supply

00:38Filipino personnel stationed in two occupied islands.

00:43Philippine National Security Council spokesman Jonathan Malaya

00:47said the collisions caused structural damage to the two Coast Guard vessels.

00:52He added that the Philippines' actions to assert its rights in the South China Sea

00:57are not provocative.

00:58The Philippines said a collision occurred between one of its vessel

01:02and a Chinese Coast Guard ship at around 3.24am on Monday.

01:08About 16 minutes later, another ship was rammed twice by a Chinese Coast Guard ship.

01:14They shared photos of the damaged vessels on the Port Auxiliary engine room

01:19and the side of the vessels.

01:21China's Coast Guard posted a short video of the incident,

01:24showing the collision with one of their vessels.

01:27They said two Philippine Coast Guard vessels intruded into their waters without permission

01:33and the Philippines had repeatedly provoked and caused trouble,

01:37violating the temporary arrangements between China and the Philippines.

01:50For more UN videos visit www.un.org

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