MANILA: The Philippines said Wednesday it seized a Chinese fishing boat and its 11 crewmen on charges of catching endangered sea turtles in disputed South China Sea waters, prompting China to demand their release and accuse Manila of being provocative.
Maritime police Chief Superintendent Noel Vargas defended the action as a move to enforce maritime law and “uphold sovereign rights,” according to
The fishermen were held off Half Moon Shoal in the Spratly Islands after they were found with 350 marine turtles, said to be endangered species.
China demanded that the Philippines release the boat, and Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying urged Manila to “stop taking further provocative actions.”
China claims almost the entire oil- and gas-rich South China Sea, rejecting rival claims to parts of it from Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei. It also has a separate maritime dispute with Japan. The Philippine government said its maritime police seized the Chinese fishing boat and apprehended its crewmen “to enforce maritime laws and to uphold Philippine sovereign rights” over its exclusive economic zone.
It is the latest territorial spat between the two Asian nations, which have had increasingly tense disputes over two shoals and other areas of the South China Sea.
China earlier said via state media that Chinese officials lost contact with 11 fishermen after they were intercepted by armed men near Half Moon Shoal not far from the Philippines.
The shoal, called Hasa Hasa in the Philippines, is claimed by China as part of the Nansha island chain, known internationally as the Spratly Islands. The Spratlys are a major cluster of potentially oil- and gas-rich islands and reefs long disputed by China, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei.
China lays claim to virtually the entire South China Sea and is locked in an increasingly heated dispute with the Philippines, Vietnam and others over rights to energy resources, fishing grounds and island outposts.
Vargas said the Chinese boat will be taken to the western Philippine province of Palawan, about 110 km from Half Moon Shoal, and the fishermen will face charges of violating Philippine laws prohibiting catches of endangered green sea turtles.
Another boat with Philippine fishermen was also caught in the area with 70 turtles aboard, and those fishermen will face the same charges, Vargas said.
China’s official Xinhua News Agency said the Chinese fishermen’s vessel was intercepted on Tuesday by armed men who fired warning shots in the air. An official from the Fishing Port Monitoring Center at Tanmen in China’s Hainan province confirmed the report. He said he had no other details and declined to give his name, as is common among Chinese bureaucrats. A Chinese frigate became stuck in the shallows of Half Moon Shoal while on a security patrol in 2012, prompting China to send rescue vessels.
Manila arrests Chinese fishermen to uphold its ‘sovereign rights’
Manila arrests Chinese fishermen to uphold its ‘sovereign rights’
EU to propose permanent ban on Russian oil after Hungary election, document shows
- Two EU officials said the timing was designed to prevent the oil ban becoming a major factor in Hungary’s election campaign
- Hungary and Slovakia, still reliant on Russian oil imports, are strongly opposed to any ban
BRUSSELS: The European Commission will submit a legal proposal to permanently ban Russian oil imports on April 15, three days after Hungary’s parliamentary election, according to EU officials and a document seen by Reuters.
Two EU officials told Reuters the timing was designed to prevent the oil ban becoming a major factor in Hungary’s election campaign. Hungary and Slovakia, still reliant on Russian oil imports, are strongly opposed to any ban.
In the April 12 election, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his nationalist Fidesz party are facing the biggest challenge to their hold on power in 16 years.
The EU has already imposed sanctions on imports of seaborne Russian oil. But it wants to enshrine a full phase-out of Russian oil in legislation that would remain in place, even if a peace deal in the Ukraine war led to the EU lifting sanctions.
The Commission plans to propose the Russian oil ban on April 15, according to a draft agenda seen by Reuters. EU agendas are provisional, and the date could still change.
A Commission spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the plan.
Shipments of Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia via the Druzhba pipeline have been severed since January 27, when Kyiv said a Russian drone strike hit pipeline equipment in Western Ukraine. Slovakia and Hungary say Ukraine is to blame for the prolonged outage. Kyiv says it is trying to repair the pipeline.
HUNGARIAN VETO
Orban’s government, which has maintained cordial ties with Moscow since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, has vetoed new EU sanctions on Russia as well as a huge loan for Kyiv because of the Druzhba pipeline dispute.
The European Union is expected to circumvent any attempt by Hungary and Slovakia to block the planned permanent ban on Russian oil imports by using a law that can be approved by a qualified majority of member states.
EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen has said the proposal will phase out Russian oil imports by no later than end-2027.
By the final quarter of last year, the EU was importing just 1 percent of its oil from Russia, largely as a result of the bloc’s sanctions on seaborne Russian crude.
The EU last month fixed into law a full phase-out of Russian gas by late 2027. Hungary and Slovakia have vowed to challenge that law in court.
Orban has cast Hungary’s April election as a stark choice between “war or peace,” saying his opponents would drag the country into the war raging next door in Ukraine, something they strongly deny.
