The Spratly Islands are a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea. Composed of islands, islets, cays, and more than 100 reefs, sometimes grouped in submerged old atolls, the archipelago lies off the coasts of the Philippines, Malaysia, and southern Vietnam. Named after the 19th-century British whaling captain Richard Spratly who sighted Spratly Island in 1843, the islands contain less than 2 km2 of naturally occurring land area, which is spread over an area of more than 425,000 km2 (164,000 sq mi).

Khánh Hòa is a southern coastal province in the South Central Coast region, the Central of Vietnam. It borders Phú Yên to the north, Ninh Thuận to the south, Đắk Lắk to the west, Lâm Đồng to the southwest and the East Sea to the east.