Vietnam briefs envoys on row

Vietnam briefs envoys on row

HANOI (Reuter): Vietnam has called Association of South East
Asian Nations (ASEAN) ambassadors in Hanoi to an urgent briefing
on its row with China over sovereignty of a potentially gas-rich
offshore area, diplomats said yesterday.

"There will be urgent consultations on this matter," said the
ambassador of one country in the seven-nation ASEAN grouping. "We
are going to be briefed by Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs
on this issue."

Ambassadors said the situation in the South China Sea would be
outlined to them by Deputy Foreign Minister Vu Khoan on Thursday
afternoon.

Last Sunday Hanoi said it lodged a formal complaint with
Beijing over drilling by China's Kan Tan III rig in an area which
it said was 64.5 nautical miles off the shoreline of central
Vietnam.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman in Beijing responded that the
drilling rig was in Chinese waters and that its activities were
both normal and above reproach.