BEIJING â€" Chinese fishing boats near the disputed Scarborough Shoal off the Philippine coast were heading back to port Monday following the pullback of Philippine vessels in the same area in an apparent short-term easing of tensions in the South China Sea, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.
The pullback by both nations, made necessary by the arrival of the typhoon season, was expected after two months of conflicting claims over ownership of the shoal, about 140 miles west of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon.
The underlying antagonism between China and the Philippines over disputed islands in the South China Sea remains unresolved, but diplomats said they hoped the absence of the vessels from the area would lead to a cooling-off period.
‘‘We hope there will continue to be an easing in the situation and hope bilateral cooperation will recover and be safeguarded,’’ a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Hong Lei, said at a regular news briefing Monday.
Over the weekend, the Philippines’ president, Benigno S. Aquino III, ordered all Philippine vessels to leave the Scarborough Shoal waters because of rough seas and heavy rains from a seasonal typhoon, the Philippine Foreign Ministry said.
It was expected that China would follow suit, Philippine officials said, in what appeared to be a carefully choreographed withdrawal by both sides. ‘‘When weather improves, a re-evaluation will be made,’’ Albert del Rosario, the foreign secretary, said about future plans.
In a move that could further alleviate tensions between China and the Philippines, Mr. Aquino swore in a new ambassador to Beijing on Monday.
The new envoy, Sonia Brady, is considered an experienced diplomat who served in Beijing from 2006 to 2010 and in other Asian countries before that.
The Philippines was without an ambassador in Beijing during the Scarborough Shoal crisis, a factor that aggravated the situation, officials from both countries said.
The diplomatic clash between the two countries began in early April when two Chinese law enforcement vessels, a Philippine Navy ship and half a dozen Chinese fishing boats were involved in a standoff at the shoal.
When the Philippine ship tried to stop Chinese fishermen from taking poached sharks, clams and rare corals from the area, two Chinese marine surveillance craft intervened.
After two tense days, the Philippine ship withdrew. But most of the vessels involved in the showdown remained in nearby waters until this past weekend.
At the core of the dispute are sovereignty claims by the Philippines and China, highlighting increasing concerns about the freedom of navigation and territorial rights in one of the world’s busiest waterways.
complicating the situation is a 1951 mutual defense treaty between the United States and the Philippines that Philippine officials interpret as meaning the United States would defend the Philippines in case of any conflict.
The seabeds of the South China Sea hold energy reserves that are being exploited in some areas. In other areas, drilling is expected to start soon, including at Reed Bank, an area off the Philippine coast that China claims.
A Philippine energy company has said it plans to start operations at Reed Bank later this year, and the easing of tensions over Scarborough Shoal will then be tested, diplomats said.
China has shown increasing assertiveness over its claims in the South China Sea by stressing that much of the sea and its islands belong to China for historical reasons going back many centuries.
The United States has expressed concerns about the standoff to both China and the Philippines and has urged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to adopt a code of conduct that would include a mechanism for the resolution of disputes in the area.
side from China and the Philippines, three other countries in Southeast Asia â€" Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam â€" make claims to islands in the sea, as does Taiwan.
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