Tokyo (VNA) – Japan is deeply concerned about China’s repeated incursioninto the South China Sea (called the East Sea in Vietnam) andJapanese-administered Senkaku islands in the East China Sea, Japanese ForeignMinister Toshimitsu Motegi told his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi during atelephone call on April 5.

Motegi also voiced his concern over China’s new law that empowers coast guardvessels to fire on foreign flagged ships within maritime jurisdictiondetermined by China.

Earlier, at the annual meeting under the Maritime and Aerial CommunicationMechanism between the two defence authorities in late March, a representativefrom Japan Defence Ministry raised his grave concern over the Chinese law aswell as China increasing activities that escalate tensions in the waters.

Many countries in the world have showed serious concernsover China’s recent deployment of over 200 ships around Sinh Ton island clusterin Vietnam’s Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago and requested the country toimmediately bring these vessels out of the area and end all provocations.

The Vietnamese Foreign Ministry’s Spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said that theoperation of the Chinese ships within the territorial waters of Sinh Ton Dongisland in Truong Sa archipelago has violated Vietnam’s sovereignty and the 1982UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)’s regulations on the operation offoreign vessels in the territorial waters of coastal nations, run counter tothe spirit and content of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the EastSea (DOC), and complicated the situation which is unfavourable for the processof negotiations between ASEAN and China on a Code of Conduct of Parties in theEast Sea (COC)./.