MANILA (Reuters) -The Philippine coast guard accused the Chinese language navy of performing harmful flight manoeuvres on Tuesday when it flew near a authorities plane patrolling a disputed shoal within the South China Sea.
“This reckless motion posed a critical threat to the security of the pilots and passengers,” the coast guard mentioned in an announcement.
The Philippine coast guard mentioned the federal government fisheries plane was conducting what it known as a maritime area consciousness flight on Tuesday over the Scarborough Shoal, a rocky atoll and prime fishing patch positioned contained in the Philippines’ unique financial zone.
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The Chinese language protection ministry didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The Folks’s Liberation Military Navy helicopter flew as shut as three metres to the plane, which the Philippine coast guard mentioned was a “clear violation and blatant disregard” for aviation rules.
Named after a British ship that was grounded on the atoll almost three centuries in the past, the Scarborough Shoal is among the most contested maritime characteristic within the South China Sea, the place Beijing and Manila have clashed repeatedly.
China claims sovereignty over nearly the whole South China Sea, an important waterway for greater than $3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce, placing it at odds with Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
A 2016 arbitration ruling invalidated China’s expansive declare however Beijing doesn’t recognise the choice.
(Reporting by Mikhail Flores and Karen Lema; Enhancing by Martin Petty)
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