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.