can be recently described as friendly. On October 26, 2011, Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang made a state visit to the Philippines where he met with his Filipino counterpart, President Benigno Aquino III. The two countries signed four agreements on naval, coast guard and tourism as part of the Philippine-Vietnam Action Plan 2011–2016 framework. A Memorandum of Understanding agreement supported information sharing between the Philippine Navy and the Vietnam People's Navy. Both being victims of Typhoon Haiyan (though Vietnam was not as greatly affected as previously expected), the Vietnamese still donated to help the Philippines in its rehabilitation efforts after the natural disaster, through the Vietnam Red Cross Society. South China Sea disputes The Philippines and Vietnam have territorial disputes over the Spratly Islands, among with Brunei, China, Malaysia, and Taiwan. The Philippines and Vietnam both disapprove of China's nine-dash map which China uses as justification for its claim in the South China Sea. Both countries were also committed to a multilateral diplomatic approach to the resolution of disputes in the South China Sea with the UNCLOS taken into account. In December 2015, pirates believed to be from the Moro Pirates, rogue Muslim Filipinos wanted for war crimes in the Philippines, murdered a Vietnamese fisherman in the South China Sea, which sparked a strong protest from the Vietnamese side. The event also sparked outrage from the Philippine side, who was persecuting the wanted criminals who may have been influenced by Islamic terrorism. Both Vietnam and the Philippines have upheld a variety of international agreements against terrorism in the region. In 2016, after a legal battle in The Hague, the International Court of Justice of the United Nations ruled in favor of all arguments of the Philippines against China's claims in the South China Sea, effectively nullifying China's claims in the international legal arena. However, China waived the international court's ruling despite being a signatory with respect to international laws and UNCLOS and sent more military vessels to the South China Sea, replacing corals reefs with man-made islands that house military bases and missile launchers. Vietnam formally supported the Philippines in its arbitration case against China regarding China's nine-dash claim over the South China Sea in the entirety of the case. In August 2017, Vietnam pushed for the inclusion of a stronger statement against Chinese activities in the South China Sea. In May 2019, after a Chinese vessel rammed and sank