Philippine, Vietnamese troops play football and sing on disputed island

MANILA (Reuters) - Vietnamese and Philippine troops played football and sang karaoke on a South China Sea island on Wednesday in a sign of the growing security ties between the two Southeast Asian nations most at odds with Beijing over the contested waterway.

Cooperation has blossomed between Hanoi and Manila since they shelved decades of enmity over their competing claims in the Spratly archipelago to try to counter China, whose creation of artificial islands in the region will allow it to project power deep into the maritime heart of Southeast Asia.