He also said that despite tensions over South China Sea conflict and other territorial and other issues, both India and Vietnam would want good relations with China.
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“When Vietnam acquired the EXTRA system, it was always thought that it would be deployed on the Spratlys.it is the flawless weapon for that”, Siemon Wezeman, a senior arms researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), told Reuters.
Chinese coast guard ships entered Japanese territorial waters around the East China Sea islands, which Beijing calls the Diaoyu, on three straight days through Tuesday, according to the Japanese foreign ministry.
Deputy Defense Minister, Senior Lieutenant-General Nguyen Chi Vinh, told Reuters in Singapore in June that Hanoi had no such launchers or weapons ready in the Spratlys, but reserved the right to take any such measures.
President Xi Jinping said China’s “territorial sovereignty and marine rights” in the seas would not be affected by last month’s ruling by an global tribunal at The Hague, which declared large areas of the sea to be neutral worldwide waters or the exclusive economic zones of other countries.
“China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and their surrounding waters”, the Foreign Ministry’s Spokesperson’s Office said in a written reply on Wednesday.
Carl Thayer is a Vietnam expert at the Australian Defense Force Academy. The two Asian superpowers have also been scrambling for the upper hand in Nepal, where a new prime minister has just been elected, paving the way for India and China to improve relations with their common neighbour.
Thayer says that China, however, is unlikely to perceive the rocket transfer as a defensive move, meaning increased militarization of the area may be imminent.
Soldiers of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy patrol at Woody Island, in the Paracel Archipelago, which is known in China as the Xisha Islands, Jan. 29, 2016.
Vietnam has illegally occupied 29 of about 50 islands and reefs in the South China Sea. Sixty-four Vietnamese soldiers were killed trying to defend the country’s flag on South Johnson reef. Designated by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte as a special envoy, Ramos arrived in Hong Kong on Monday to start his visit to China after the South China Sea arbitration case has frozen the two countries’ ties.
“When Vietnam acquired the EXTRA system, it was always thought that it would be deployed on the Spratlys.it is the flawless weapon for that”, said Siemon Wezeman, a senior arms researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
The foreign officials and military analysts believe that the rocket launchers placed on the Spratly Islands could be part of a new EXTRA rocket artillery system. EXTRA is considered to be easily movable and effective against multiple targets at the same time.
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Beijing appears to be asserting its claim to the disputed Senkaku Islands more actively this week, sending numerous ships into what Tokyo considers its exclusive economic zone.
