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.