China's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that no country, organisation, company or individual can carry out oil and gas exploration or exploitation in Chinese waters without permission from Beijing.
Ministry spokesman Lu Kang made the comment at a regular news briefing when asked about recent drilling by Rosneft Vietnam BV, a unit of Russian state oil firm Rosneft, in an area of the South China Sea that is claimed by China.
"We urge relevant parties to earnestly respect China's sovereign and jurisdictional rights and not do anything that could impact bilateral relations or this region's peace and stability," Lu said.
(Reporting by Christian Shepherd; Writing by Michael Martina Edited by Martin Howell)
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