Hanoi : China has been accused of serious ‘infringement of the sovereignty’ of Vietnam by landing a plane on an airstrip that Beijing has built on the disputed Spratly’ archipelago which was against the recent confidence building pact.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said the airfield had been ‘built illegally’ on Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly archipelago in territory that was ‘part of Vietnam’s Spratlys’, reports the Dawn.
The China’s Foreign Ministry, however, discarded the complaint and said that it was just a test flight to the newly-built airfield on the reef, which they call Yongshu Jiao.
Hanoi’s Foreign Ministry informed that Vietnam handed a protest note to China’s embassy and asked China not to repeat the action.
The United States said that the flight had exacerbated tensions.(ANI)