BEIJING: China’s Coast Guard fired water cannon on Tuesday at Philippine ships near the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, accusing Manila of an “illegal” intrusion and the ramming of one of its vessels.
The confrontation comes a week after China approved plans to turn the shoal into a national nature reserve, a move that defense analysts have warned would test Manila’s response over the 150 square-kilometer triangular chain of reefs and rocks.
Simmering tension over the shoal has led to diplomatic rows in recent years, but no incidents have escalated into armed conflict at the site.
Both sides accuse each other of provocations and trespassing in incidents featuring use of water cannon, boat-ramming and maneuvers by China’s Coast Guard the Philippines regards as dangerously close, as well as jets shadowing Philippine aircraft there.
Tuesday’s encounter involved more than 10 Philippine ships, said Gan Yu, a spokesperson for China’s Coast Guard, accusing the vessels of having “illegally invaded China’s territorial waters of the Scarborough Shoal from different directions.”
In particular, he faulted Philippine Coast Guard vessel 3014, saying in a statement it had “disregarded solemn warnings from the Chinese side and deliberately rammed a Chinese coast guard vessel.”
He added, “The China coast guard lawfully implemented control measures against the Philippine ships.”
These included measures such as verbal warnings, route restrictions and water cannon spraying, Gan added.
A spokesperson for the Philippine Maritime Council said the Chinese coast guard’s statement contained “no truth,” dismissing it as “another case of Chinese disinformation and propaganda.”
Analysts have said Beijing’s plan to categorize the shoal as a nature reserve amounted to trying to take the moral high ground in the dispute over the atoll, known as Huangyan Island in China and Panatag Shoal in the Philippines.
The dispute is part of a contest over sovereignty and fishing access in the South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, overlapping the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. Unresolved disputes have festered for years over ownership of various islands and features.
In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague ruled that China’s sweeping claims in the region were not supported by international law, a decision that Beijing rejects.
China fires water cannon at Philippine ships in South China Sea
https://arab.news/8h78z
China fires water cannon at Philippine ships in South China Sea
- Confrontation comes a week after China approved plans to turn Scarborough Shoal into a national nature reserve
- Simmering tension over the shoal has led to diplomatic rows in recent years
Hungary says it will block a key EU loan to Ukraine until Russian oil shipments resume
- Szijjártó said: “As long as Ukraine blocks the resumption of oil supplies to Hungary, Hungary will block European Union decisions that are important and favorable for Ukraine”
- Hungary’s decision to block the key funding came two days after it suspended diesel shipments
BUDAPEST: Hungary will block a planned 90-billion-euro ($106-billion) European Union loan to Ukraine until the flow of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline resumes, Hungary’s foreign minister said.
Russian oil shipments to Hungary and Slovakia have been interrupted since Jan. 27 after what Ukrainian officials said was a Russian drone attack damaged the Druzhba pipeline, which carries Russian crude across Ukrainian territory and into Central Europe.
Hungary and Slovakia, which have both received a temporary exemption from an EU policy prohibiting imports of Russian oil, have accused Ukraine — without providing evidence — of deliberately holding up supplies. Both countries ceased shipping diesel to Ukraine this week over the interruption in oil flows .
In a video posted on social media Friday evening, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó accused Ukraine of “blackmailing” Hungary by failing to restart shipments. He said his government would block a massive interest-free loan the EU approved in December to help Kyiv to meet its military and economic needs for the next two years.
“We will not give in to this blackmail. We do not support Ukraine’s war, we will not pay for it,” Szijjártó said. “As long as Ukraine blocks the resumption of oil supplies to Hungary, Hungary will block European Union decisions that are important and favorable for Ukraine.”
Hungary’s decision to block the key funding came two days after it suspended diesel shipments to its embattled neighbor and only days before the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Nearly every country in Europe has significantly reduced or entirely ceased Russian energy imports since Moscow launched its war in Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Yet Hungary and Slovakia — both EU and NATO members — have maintained and even increased supplies of Russian oil and gas.
Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has long argued Russian fossil fuels are indispensable for its economy and that switching to energy sourced from elsewhere would cause an immediate economic collapse — an argument some experts dispute.
Widely seen as the Kremlin’s biggest advocate in the EU, Orbán has vigorously opposed the bloc’s efforts to sanction Moscow over its invasion, and blasted attempts to hit Russia’s energy revenues that help finance the war. His government has frequently threatened to veto EU efforts to assist Ukraine.
On Saturday, Slovakia’s populist Prime minister Robert Fico said his country will stop providing emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine if oil is not flowing through the Druzhba by Monday. Orbán’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyás, said earlier this week that Hungary, too, was exploring the possibility of cutting off its electricity supplies to Ukraine.
Not all of the EU’s 27 countries agreed to take part in the 90-billion-euro loan package for Kyiv. Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic opposed the plan, but a deal was reached in which they did not block the loan and were promised protection from any financial fallout.
