China on Monday confirmed that it has reached the “provisional arrangement” with the Philippines on managing the situation at disputed Ren’ai Reef (Second Thomas Shoal) in the South China Sea, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
“China recently had a series of consultation with the Philippines on managing the situation at Ren’ai Reef and reached provisional arrangement with the Philippines on humanitarian resupply of living necessities. The two sides agreed to jointly manage differences on maritime issues and work for de-escalation in the South China Sea,” an unnamed spokesperson at the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
However, the spokesperson stressed that the reef is part of China’s Nansha (Spratly) Islands and China has sovereignty over the islands as well as their adjacent waters, according to the statement.
The Chinese government did not provide details on the “provisional arrangement” agreed on Sunday for the resupply missions to a grounded Philippine warship on the disputed shoal.
“We cont
inue to demand that the Philippines tow away the warship and restore Ren’ai Reef’s state of hosting no personnel or facilities,” the spokesperson said.
Should the Philippines needs to send living necessities to the personnel living on the warship before the Philippines tows away, China is willing to allow it in a humanitarian spirit, but China will monitor the entire resupply process, the statement said.
“If the Philippines were to send large amount of construction materials to the warship and attempt to build fixed facilities or permanent outpost, China will absolutely not accept it and will resolutely stop it in accordance with the law and regulations to uphold China’s sovereignty.” China insists sovereignty over most of the resource-rich South China Sea, including the Nansha (Spratly) Islands that are also claimed by the Philippines, Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam.
Source: Kuwait News Agency