RP says Vietnam fired at plane

RP says Vietnam fired at plane

MANILA (Reuters): The Philippines on Thursday accused Vietnamese troops of shooting at a Philippine aircraft over the disputed Spratly Islands and said it had expressed its "greatest concern" to Hanoi.

Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon said the Philippine Air Force plane was investigating a three-story concrete facility being built by Vietnam on a reef claimed by the two countries when it was shot at on Oct. 13. The plane was not hit.

He said the Philippine foreign ministry protested against the shooting and the expansion of the Vietnamese facility on the reef in a formal note handed to Vietnam's ambassador in Manila, Nguyen Thac Dinh, on Wednesday.

"We view with the greatest concern these recent acts of Vietnam," Siazon said in a statement.

"These acts, particularly the firing of shots at the Philippine aircraft, are a clear assailment of the letter and spirit of various regional, multilateral and regional agreements and declarations entered into by both the Philippine and Vietnamese governments," he said.

In Hanoi, Vietnam's Foreign Ministry did not comment on the incident except to issue a statement saying the country had full sovereignty over the Spratlys but that claimants there should exercise restraint.

Siazon said the plane was shot at by Vietnamese troops while trying to get a closer look at the "soon-to-be-complete facility".

Siazon said the shooting took place about the same time as officials of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) were in Bangkok to discuss a proposed code of conduct aimed at preventing accidental conflicts in the Spratlys.

The Spratlys are a cluster of nearly 200 largely barren isles, reefs and rocky outcrops in the South China sea that are claimed wholly or in part by China, Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei. They are believed to potentially rich in oil and natural gas.