RP, China agree to ease tensions

RP, China agree to ease tensions

MANILA (AFP): The Philippines and China agreed on Wednesday to take steps to ease recent heightened tensions over a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.

"The two sides agreed to refrain from making any actions or provocative statements that might complicate or escalate the situation," over the Scarborough Shoal, officials from both sides said after talks in the Philippine capital.

The meeting was led by Philippine Vice-President Teofisto Guingona and Chinese foreign affairs director-general Fu Ying.

The Philippine navy has boarded 14 Chinese-flagged fishing boats off the disputed shoal so far this year and confiscated their catches of giant clams and other endangered marine products.

Last year, they shot dead a Chinese fisherman after he and his crew resisted arrest near the shoal, situated about 120 nautical miles west of the main Philippine island of Luzon.