China has concluded drilling in disputed waters near Vietnam with an announcement that it has discovered signs of oil and gas. The end of drilling should assuage tensions with its neighbour in the near term, ahead of an Asian security meeting next month, writes Lucy Hornby in Beijing.

Deployment of the $1bn “Cnooc 981” deepwater rig in May, 17 nautical miles from Triton Island, a Chinese-controlled islet in the disputed Paracels archipelago, set off a maritime stand-off between Chinese and Vietnamese ships and provoked anti-Chinese riots in Vietnam.

The nearly three-month confrontation, involving dozens of ships from the two nations, was the latest flare-up as China gradually stakes out its claim to nearly all the waters of the South China Sea, most of which are also claimed by other nations.