AFP, KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will lodge a diplomatic protest against an alleged incursion by a Chinese Coast Guard ship into its waters off Borneo island in the disputed South China Sea, a top naval official said yesterday amid a continuing standoff with the vessel. Navy Chief Abdul Aziz Jaafar said that since late 2014, intrusions by Chinese ships into Malaysian waters have been a daily affair with Kuala Lumpur protesting to Beijing each time.
Abdul Aziz told AFP the Chinese vessel involved in the latest incident remained in Malaysian waters.
"We have been submitting (diplomatic protests). Every time we detect them... every time we sight them we challenge them (to indicate) that they are in our waters. At the same time we lodge a diplomatic protest," he added. The latest incident is near the Luconia Shoals, an area of the South China Sea just outside the Spratlys, a reputedly oil-rich island chain claimed in whole or in part by Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
Abdul Aziz said the Chinese incursion had taken place very close to theMalaysian coast.
Luconia Shoals lies just 65 nautical miles (120 kilometres) north west of the oil-rich town of Miri in eastern Sarawak state.
Abdul Aziz said in the latest incident attempts to communicate with the Chinese vessel to state that it was in Malaysian waters met no response.
Beijing, which claims the South China Sea almost entirely, has built 2,000 acres (800 hectares) of artificial islands in the Spratlys, including those with facilities that appear to have a military purpose.
Regional alarm is growing at moves by China to stake its claim to most of the sea, including its large-scale island-building programme.
The Philippines and the United States have urged China to halt reclamation.
Meanwhile, The Philippines and Japan will hold fresh joint naval drills this month, the Filipino military said Tuesday, as the World War II foes swiftly ramp up security ties while China develops islands in disputed waters.
The June 22-26 joint manoeuvres with the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force would be only the second ever, after an unprecedented one-day exercise in the flashpoint South China Sea last month, Philippine navy spokesman Colonel Edgard Arevalo said.
He would not say where the new exercises would be held or which ships would take part. But Japanese media, quoting unnmamed official sources, suggested the second manoeuvres will also take place on the South China Sea.
On May 12, two Japanese destroyers and one of the Philippines' newest warships held historic manoeuvres less than 300 kilometres (168 miles) from the Philippine-claimed Scarborough Shoal, which is now under Chinese control.