Vietnam protests China, Philippines claims on South China Sea reef

Hanoi: Vietnam on Saturday protested claims by China and the Philippines over a disputed reef in the South China Sea which it considers its own territ...

Hanoi: Vietnam on Saturday protested claims by China and the Philippines over a disputed reef in the South China Sea which it considers its own territory.

Manila and Beijing traded barbs last week over Sandy Cay, a group of small sandbanks in the waterway's Spratly Islands, after a Chinese state media report suggested the area had been seized.

The Philippines and China have been engaged in months of confrontations over the South China Sea, which Beijing claims nearly in its entirety despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.

On Saturday Vietnam's foreign ministry spokeperson Pham Thu Hang said in a statement posted on the government's official website that Hanoi had "issued protest notes to the countries involved regarding violations of its sovereignty over Sandy Cay".

Vietnam considers the resource-rich Spratly Islands -- which lie some 500 kilometres (310 miles) off its east coast -- as part of its territory.