MANILA, Philippines—After China called the games between the Philippines and Vietnam a farce, one Philippine Navy official said that the sports festival between the two nations was not meant to provoke any actions from the mighty Asian nation.
“Definitely it’s not meant to pick on China,” Colonel Edgard Arevalo, Philippine Navy spokesman, said Tuesday afternoon.
He said that the sole purpose of the games, which involved football, volleyball, and tug of war, which was conducted at Southwest Cay, a Vietnamese-occupied island in the South China Sea, was to create a fellowship between the Philippines and Vietnam.
On Monday, China called the game a “clumsy farce” and demanded that the two smaller countries “stop causing trouble.”
Arevalo said that even though the Philippines and Vietnam are co-claimants of the Southwest Cay, they want to have good relations with each other.
“What we want to maintain is the friendly relations, we can show that we can interact with each other without fighting, without the disputes,” Arevalo said Tuesday.
“Fellowship can still develop, notwithstanding the claims for the islands, the least of our intention is to pick quarrels with anyone.”
Arevalo added that there would be another installment of the games between the Naval forces of the Philippines and Vietnam, this time with the Filipinos playing as hosts.
He added that other claimants to the disputed islands, like Taiwan and Malaysia, could also join the games in 2015.
“Our friendly relations with other countries has been ongoing through joint training,” Arevalo said. “Promoting sports is another avenue.”
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