China and the Philippines traded blames of deliberately ramming into each other’s coast guard vessels near a disputed atoll in the South China Sea where the two countries are engaged in an escalating standoff.

The U.S. State Department said this weekend that it stood with its “ally” and condemned China for “deliberately” colliding with a Philippine Coast Guard vessel.

The U.S state Department said, “This is the latest in a series of dangerous and escalatory actions by the P.R.C.,” a State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, said in the statement, referring to the People’s Republic of China. “The P.R.C.’s unlawful claims of ‘territorial sovereignty’ over ocean areas where no land territory exists, and its increasingly aggressive actions to enforce them, threaten the freedoms of navigation and overflight of all nations.”

Mr. Miller reaffirmed the 1951 United States-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty, which requires America to come to the defense of the Philippines if it comes under armed attack.

Sabina Shoal, is referred to as Xianbin Jiao by China and as Escoda Shoal by the Philippines, is the latest happenings in a continuing dispute between Beijing and Manila over territory in the South China Sea. In June this year, a Filipino sailor lost a thumb after a collision with a Chinese Coast Guard ship at the nearby Second Thomas Shoal, manila claimed that Beijing has tried to thwart a resupply of a Philippine military outpost.

China maintains vast claims to the waters in the South China Sea, which contains some of the world’s richest fisheries, as well as shipping lanes that carry about a third of global ocean trade. Experts also believe that the area has large deposits of oil and natural gas, which is perceived to be the main reason for the dispute.

An international tribunal ruled in 2016 that China’s claims in the sea had no legal basis. It noted that features such as Second Thomas Shoal were within the Philippines’s 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone.

The 97-meter Teresa Magbanua is one of the country’s biggest coast guard ships, it has been anchored at Sabina Shoal since April. Claiming that the atoll is inside the economic zone of the Philippines about 75 nautical miles from the western province of Palawan and more than 600 nautical miles from China.

China went on to release its own video of the collision, claiming that the Philippine ship sailed into the path of the Chinese Coast Guard vessel.

a spokesman for the Chinese Coast Guard, said ,“The Philippine ship deliberately rammed into the Chinese ship,” said Liu Dejun, adding that it happened “in an unprofessional and dangerous manner, causing the collision for which the Philippines should bear full responsibility.”

“China authorities once again urges the Philippines to face reality, abandon illusions, and immediately withdraw their illegal ship and fishing activities.

The encounter on Saturday near Sabina Shoal is one of the series of stand offs between the two countires with one happening on Aug. 25 when Chinese Coast Guard ships fired water cannons at Philippine fisheries vessels, and another on Aug. 19 when coast guard ships from the Philippines and China collided.