CHINA on Monday claimed that it does not have the type of aircraft that were reported to have buzzed two Air Force OV-10 “Bronco” armed reconnaissance planes above Palawan nearly two weeks ago, but did not categorically deny that its jet fighters were not involved in the incident.

The claim was issued by Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie during his meeting with Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin on Monday, during which the two leaders also discussed the tricky issue of the Spratly islands and how it could be peacefully resolved among the claimant-countries.

Gazmin said during his talk with Liang, the Chinese official told him that Beijing had no MiG-29 “Fulcrum” fighter jets, the type of aircraft that was earlier reported to have flown above the Broncos while they were returning from an air patrol of the country’s occupied islets in the Spratlys.

“He said that in the inventory of their armed forces, they do not have MiG-29s, and I told them, I told them that the Armed Forces had continuously denied that they were able to identify the aircraft as a MiG,” Gazmin said.

“He was not protesting…he raised the issue that media is saying that there are two MiGs that intruded into our area. I told him that was the media line, but that’s not the line of the Armed Forces and the Department of National Defense,” he added.

Gazmin said the military does not know the type of aircraft that intruded into the country’s airspace because it was flying at the altitude of approximately 20,000 feet, while the Broncos were only at 5,000 feet.

While the air incursion was discussed, the two defense chiefs, however, failed to tackle or wittingly escaped the issue about the bullying of a Filipino research vessel by a Chinese gunboat at the Reed Bank near Palawan in March.

“That was not discussed, but in general things…[it] should be settled amicably by opening lines of communication, dialogs and sitting down and talking to each other,” Gazmin said.

Gazmin said he and Liang also talked about the Spratlys, and they agreed that its ownership dispute should be resolved by the claimant-countries, including China and the Philippines, through a dialog.

The defense chief said he raised the issue by taking a cue from the recent defense ministers’ meeting in Indonesia, wherein during the gathering, China told Thailand and Cambodia to settle their border dispute through a dialog.

Liang’s visit to Gazmin came with an announcement that China will give the Philippines more than P60 million worth of engineering equipment.