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TAIPEI — Taiwan on Wednesday rebuffed a grievance from the Philippines about reside hearth drills round a Taiwan-controlled island deep within the South China Sea, saying it had the best to take action and all the time offers points a warning of its workouts.
The Division of International Affairs, in a message on Twitter late on Tuesday, lodged a “sturdy objection over the illegal reside hearth drills” to be carried out by Taiwan this week across the island, recognized internationally as Itu Aba.
Taiwan calls the island Taiping and the Philippines calls it Ligaw Island.
The division stated the island belonged to the Philippines.
“This criminality raises tensions and complicates the state of affairs within the South China Sea,” it stated.
Taiwan’s overseas ministry stated in an announcement the island was a part of the territory of the Republic of China – Taiwan’s formal title – and that it loved all related rights accorded by worldwide legislation.
“Our nation has the best to conduct routine workouts on Taiping Island and associated maritime areas. So as to guarantee the security of maritime visitors and fishing boats working in adjoining maritime areas, we notify the related regional nations prematurely earlier than every live-fire drill,” it stated.
Itu Aba is the most important function within the Spratly Islands, a grouping of islets and different options additionally claimed, fully or partially, by China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.
The Philippines usually complains most vociferously about China’s actions within the South China Sea, together with what Manila says is against the law fishing.
The Philippines, like most counties, has no official diplomatic ties with Taiwan however there are shut cultural and financial hyperlinks and Taiwan is dwelling to about 160,000 Filipinos, most of them migrant employees.
The maps China bases its South China Sea claims on date to when Chiang Kai-shek’s Republic of China authorities dominated China earlier than it fled to Taiwan in 1949 after dropping a civil warfare to Mao Zedong’s Communists.
Taiwan additionally controls the Pratas Islands on the very northern finish of the South China Sea.
—Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Further reporting by Karen Lema in Manila; Enhancing by Robert Birsel
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