KUANTAN: Malaysia must play it cool amid reports of the leak of a diplomatic note expressing protests from China, claiming that oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea had entered the latter's territorial boundaries.
Nusantara Academy of Strategic Research senior fellow Professor Dr Azmi Hassan said the claims are not the first time that China has expressed objection on this particular issue.
"Before the diplomatic note, they used physical objection when their coast guard ship entered our 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
"China appears to be saying that this is our area by deploying this particular technique... it is our EEZ but we cannot stop other ships from entering our EEZ as it is part of international waters.
"When they used the diplomatic note, I think this is good because China used it according to the norm of international law and we should not become alarmed.
"There are some quarters, whom I assume, purposely made the particular protest note public so that we (Malaysia) react to it.
"The protest note has raised concerns but we must not be alarmed as China had only used the normal way by deploying the diplomatic note which is according to the international law," he said when contacted.
Meanwhile, Azmi said personally, he felt that Malaysia must pursue the matter with another diplomatic note explaining the country's move to continue exploration at the EEZ based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)
He said it was more worrying that China's patrol ships had entered Malaysia's EEZ regularly but had not breached the 12 nautical miles maritime area from the shore.
"They have not done that yet and I think they also know the law here. They are making a claim but this is not according to international law so we should not worry about this issue, " he said, adding that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's decision to continue exploration under Malaysia's EEZ as a bold move.
Yesterday, Anwar said Malaysia will not stop its exploration of potential oil and gas areas in the South China Sea, despite protests from China.
It was earlier reported that the leak of a diplomatic note sent by Beijing to Malaysia, published by Philippine media, claiming that Malaysia's oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea had entered China's territorial boundaries.