TAIPEI, Taiwan – Vietnam protested China and the Philippines over their competing activities at Sandy Cay in the disputed South China Sea, highlighting the country’s increasingly assertive voice in regional maritime disputes.
China and the Philippines last week staged rival flag-raising displays on Sandy Cay, a key site for Manila to monitor Chinese activity in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
Hanoi, which also considers the sandbank part of its territory, said on Saturday that it had sent diplomatic notes to both China and the Philippines protesting their recent activities at the disputed site.
“Vietnam calls on the relevant parties to respect Vietnam’s sovereignty, comply with international law, and contribute to maintaining peace and stability in the East Sea,” Pham Thu Hang, Vietnam’s foreign ministry spokesperson, said in a statement.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported on April 26 that China’s coast guard had landed at Sandy Cay as part of a maritime operation to assert Beijing’s sovereignty over the Spratly Islands.
The Philippines, a day later, sent its own coast guards and police officers to the sandbars and found no one there, with both nations raising their flags over the disputed reef.
Vietnam has employed a mixed strategy of balancing, bandwagoning, and neutrality when dealing with the controversies between China and the Philippines in the region.
In April, coast guards from China and Vietnam completed their first joint patrol of 2025 in the Gulf of Tonkin, marking the 29th such joint patrol since 2006.
During the operation, vessels conducted joint maritime search and rescue exercises and monitored fishing activities along established maritime boundaries, which China characterized as “a model for maritime law enforcement cooperation in the South China Sea.”
However, Vietnam has also been enhancing security cooperation with the Philippines.
In August 2024, the Philippine and Vietnamese coast guards conducted their first joint firefighting and search-and-rescue exercises off Manila, focusing on humanitarian aspects of maritime operations.
