An intelligence report revealed that Vietnam has deployed missile launchers in the South China Sea.
Vietnam intensifies its posture in an island in the South China Sea that it had been claiming for so long already.
Based on an intelligence information that the Western nations have secured, Vietnam deployed mobile rocket launchers in Spratly Islands.
The missile launchers are said to be capable of hitting the runways and military installations of China in the disputed territory.
Five rocket launchers were put by Hanoi in South China Sea but are placed strategically that cannot be tracked by aerial surveillance.
Diplomats and military officers said Hanoi had shipped the launchers from the Vietnamese mainland into positions on five bases in the Spratly islands in recent months. They said the launchers could be made operational, if needed, with rocket artillery rounds within two or three days.
The source was unable to verify the report, which cited unnamed western officials, and Vietnam’s foreign ministry said the information was inaccurate.
Yet the report entrenches fears of militarisation and potential conflicts in the South China Sea, the most contentious issue in east Asia.
Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan and Japan have overlapping claims with China to islands in the South China Sea and East China Sea. The region is thought to have significant oil and gas reserves and is a route for roughly £3.17tn in trade.
The launchers are believed to be part of Vietnam’s “Extra” rocket artillery system recently acquired from Israel. They have a range of 150km (93 miles) and carry 150kg warheads that can attack multiple targets at once.
Security experts say this is a sign that Vietnam is getting aggressive in the quest to claim ownership of the disputed island.
Despite of the intelligence report, Vietnam Foreign Ministry strongly denies the information.
Last month, Beijing reacted angrily to an international legal case that it lost to the Philippines over contested reefs and atolls, increasing global diplomatic pressure on China to scale back military expansion in the area.
But Beijing instead appears to have continued building bases on islands it has reclaimed, and satellite images released on Wednesday show China has placed reinforced aircraft hangars on islands it controls.