Vietnam, China Hold Talks on Calming South China Sea Tensions

 Chinese Premier Li Qiang, left, and Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh shake hands before a meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (Duong Van Giang/VNA via AP)
Chinese Premier Li Qiang, left, and Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh shake hands before a meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (Duong Van Giang/VNA via AP)
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Vietnam, China Hold Talks on Calming South China Sea Tensions

 Chinese Premier Li Qiang, left, and Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh shake hands before a meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (Duong Van Giang/VNA via AP)
Chinese Premier Li Qiang, left, and Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh shake hands before a meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (Duong Van Giang/VNA via AP)

Vietnam and China agreed to calm tensions in their South China Sea dispute, Vietnamese state media reported on Sunday, days after Hanoi accused Beijing of a "brutal" attack on its fishermen.

China is Vietnam's biggest trade partner, but the two countries share historic tensions including in the South China Sea, a waterway through which trillions of dollars of trade pass each year.

Beijing has for years sought to expand its presence in contested areas of the sea, brushing aside an international ruling that its claim to most of the waterway has no legal basis.

Last week Hanoi protested a "brutal" attack by Chinese vessels, in which it said 10 Vietnamese fishermen were beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars' worth of fish and equipment.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and visiting Chinese Premier Li Qiang "exchanged sincere and frank opinions on maritime issues" at a meeting in Hanoi, Vietnamese state media said.

"They committed to adequately controlling differences... avoiding actions that complicate the situation, and jointly maintaining stability at sea," the Bao Chinh Phu newspaper said.

The two countries also signed 10 agreements on Sunday, including on expanding cross-border railway links, payments and economic cooperation.

They agreed to work on a technical plan for a rail link between Lao Cai in northern Vietnam and Hekou in China's Yunnan province.

They also signed a memorandum of understanding on the implementation of cross-border payment services via QR codes and an agreement to study a model for an "economic cooperation zone" across their border.

Vietnam's top leader To Lam and Li agreed on Saturday to boost defense and economic cooperation, Vietnamese state media reported.

Hanoi would facilitate more high-tech Chinese investment in Vietnam and Beijing would strengthen market access for Vietnamese agricultural products, the Nhan Dan newspaper said.

At Saturday's meeting, Lam "urged both parties to... better manage and resolve differences" in maritime issues, the newspaper said.

Lam took office in early August as general secretary following the death of his predecessor, Nguyen Phu Trong.

He later met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing during his first overseas trip.



Large Earthquake Hits Battered Vanuatu

A vehicle is trapped beneath a collapsed building following a strong earthquake in Port Vila, Vanuatu, December 17, 2024, in this screengrab taken from a social media video. Jeremy Ellison/via Reuters
A vehicle is trapped beneath a collapsed building following a strong earthquake in Port Vila, Vanuatu, December 17, 2024, in this screengrab taken from a social media video. Jeremy Ellison/via Reuters
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Large Earthquake Hits Battered Vanuatu

A vehicle is trapped beneath a collapsed building following a strong earthquake in Port Vila, Vanuatu, December 17, 2024, in this screengrab taken from a social media video. Jeremy Ellison/via Reuters
A vehicle is trapped beneath a collapsed building following a strong earthquake in Port Vila, Vanuatu, December 17, 2024, in this screengrab taken from a social media video. Jeremy Ellison/via Reuters

A magnitude-6.1 earthquake rattled buildings on Vanuatu's main island early Sunday but did not appear to have caused major damage, five days after a more powerful quake wreaked havoc and killed 12 people.

The nation's most populous island, Efate, is still reeling from the deadly 7.3-magnitude temblor on Tuesday, which toppled concrete buildings and set off landslides in and around the capital of Port Vila.

The latest quake occurred at a depth of 40 kilometers (25 miles) and was located some 30 kilometers west of the capital, which has been shaken by a string of aftershocks.

No tsunami alerts were triggered when the temblor struck at 2:30 am Sunday (1530 GMT Saturday).

Port Vila businessman Michael Thompson told AFP the quake woke his family.

"It gave a better bit of a shake and the windows rattled a little bit, it would have caused houses to rattle," he said.

"But you know, no movement other than a few inches either way, really. Whereas the main quake, you would have had like a meter and a half movement of the property very, very rapidly and suddenly.

"I'd describe this one as one of the bigger aftershocks, and we've had a fair few of them now."

Thompson said there was no sign of further damage in his immediate vicinity.

The death toll remained at 12, according to government figures relayed late Saturday by the United Nations' humanitarian affairs office.

It said 210 injuries had been registered while 1,698 people have been temporarily displaced, citing Vanuatu disaster management officials.

Mobile networks remained knocked out, making outside contact with Vanuatu difficult and complicating aid efforts.

In addition to disrupting communications, the first quake damaged water supplies and halted operations at the capital's main shipping port.

The South Pacific nation declared a seven-day state of emergency and a night curfew following the first quake.

It announced Saturday it would lift a suspension on commercial flights in an effort to restart its vital tourism industry.

The first were scheduled to arrive on Sunday.

Rescuers Friday said they had expanded their search for trapped survivors to "numerous places of collapse" beyond the capital.

- Still searching -

Australia and New Zealand this week dispatched more than 100 personnel, along with rescue gear, dogs and aid supplies, to help hunt for trapped survivors and make emergency repairs.

There were "several major collapse sites where buildings are fully pancaked", Australia's rescue team leader Douglas May said in a video update on Friday.

"We're now starting to spread out to see whether there's further people trapped and further damage. And we've found numerous places of collapse east and west out of the city."

Thompson said power had been restored to his home on Saturday but said many others were still waiting.

"We're hearing a lot of the major businesses are still down, supermarkets are trying to open back up," he said.

"So this is very different to what's happened with disasters here in the past.

"Cyclones destroy everything outside, whereas earthquakes really destroy a lot of infrastructure inside the buildings."

Vanuatu, an archipelago of some 320,000 inhabitants, sits in the Pacific's quake-prone Ring of Fire.

Tourism accounts for about a third of the country's economy, according to the Australia-Pacific Islands Business Council.