HANOI: Vietnam and the Philippines agreed on Tuesday to boost cooperation among their coast guards and to prevent untoward incidents in the South China Sea, in an announcement during a state visit to Hanoi by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
\nThe two Southeast Asian countries have competing claims over some parts of the South China Sea, a conduit for $3 trillion of annual ship-borne trade that China claims almost in its entirety.
\nThe two memoranda of understanding on security covered \u201cincident prevention in the South China Sea\u201d and \u201cmaritime cooperation\u201d among coast guards, according to a Vietnamese official who announced the deals during a formal ceremony in the country\u2019s presidential palace.
\nThe agreements in Hanoi, details of which were not disclosed, could risk angering Beijing, especially if they paved the way for future compromises on disputed claims. China tends to view progress in the resolution of border disputes among other claimants with skepticism.
\nBoth Hanoi and Manila have had run-ins with China\u2019s coast guard in the past, but altercations have been frequent in the last year between vessels of China and US-ally the Philippines, adding strain to deteriorating relations.
\nBefore meeting Vietnam\u2019s President Vo Van Thuong, Marcos said Vietnam was \u201cthe sole strategic partner of the Philippines\u201d in Southeast Asia and stressed that maritime cooperation was the foundation of that relation.
\n\u201cThe world and regional situation is evolving in a rapid and complicated manner and therefore we need to unite and cooperate more closely,\u201d Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said, noting Marcos\u2019 visit helped boost bilateral relations.
\nVietnam, one of the world\u2019s biggest rice exporters, also sealed agreements with the Philippines, a top importer of the grain, covering rice trade and agriculture cooperation.
\nIn his two-day visit to Hanoi, Marcos is meeting Vietnamese leaders, but not Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong, according to official schedules, in what would be Trong\u2019s third consecutive absence from meetings with visiting leaders this month.
\nTrong, 79, however attended a parliament\u2019s session in mid-January, partly dispelling concerns about his health after he was not included in official schedules of visiting leaders from Laos and Indonesia.
\nBefore meeting Vietnamese political leaders on Tuesday, Marcos met Pham Nhat Vuong, the head of Vingroup, Vietnam\u2019s largest conglomerate, on Monday.
\nThe company said on Tuesday that its electric car unit VinFast will open a business network in the Philippines.
\nMarcos said the Philippines could help in the production of batteries for electric vehicles, thanks to its reserves of cobalt, copper and nickel, according to Vingroup\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HANOI: Vietnam and the Philippines agreed on Tuesday to boost cooperation among their coast guards and to prevent untoward incidents in the South China Sea, in an announcement during a state visit to Hanoi by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The two Southeast Asian countries have competing claims over some parts of the South China Sea, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60181"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60201,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60181\/revisions\/60201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}