Vietnam china south china sea dispute

They said the fact that some parties to the South China Sea dispute are increasingly militarizing the area is the biggest threat to regional stability. This process is not only taking place on the sea, but under it and in the air, said experts attending a conference held in Vietnam’s central city of Da Nang late last week. Vietnam calls the South China Sea the East Sea. The conference aimed to discuss potential solutions for settling the East Sea disputes. Delegates noted that in addition to competing for marine resources like fisheries, and oil and gas, the increasing use of unmanned aerial vehicles is creating new legal arguments. Dr. Collin Koh Swee Lean, a research fellow at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said the gathering of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance has so far received little interest in comparison to other superficial activities in the process of building forces in the South China Sea. The importance of those activities … [Read more...] about Hi-tech militarization of South China Sea alarming, experts say

Beijing's expansive claims to the South China Sea, which Vietnam calls the East Sea, have long been a source of friction with rival claimants in Southeast Asia, as well as Washington which has traditionally been the dominant naval power in the area. Despite disagreements over Beijing's territorial ambitions, China and Southeast Asia are trying to strike a more conciliatory tone in an effort to stop tensions from spiralling dangerously out of control. As part of this, the navies of China and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are set to hold their first joint drills, which will take place in the South China Sea. "As we speak, the navies of ASEAN are en route to Zhanjiang in China for the ASEAN-China Maritime Exercise," Singapore Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen said. Making the announcement at a gathering of ASEAN defense ministers in Singapore, also attended by U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and his Chinese counterpart, Ng said the drills would help to … [Read more...] about China, SE Asia to hold maritime drill to ease tensions

By Khanh Lynh  &nbspJuly 10, 2018 | 08:37 am GMT+7 Vietnam's Deputy Minister Pham Binh Minh (R) meets with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Hanoi on July 9, 2018. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy The denuclearization was among topics discussed during Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to Vietnam. Vietnam reaffirmed its support for the U.S. regarding its efforts to push denuclearization in North Korea at a meeting in Hanoi on Monday. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh said he highly regarded the efforts of all involved parties in the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Vietnam would support all constructive efforts through dialogues to achieve this goal, Minh said as he met with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Vietnam would continue to act as an active, responsible member of the international community in this process, his ministry said in a statement. At the meeting, Pompeo said that the U.S. attaches great importance to … [Read more...] about Vietnam voices support for US efforts to denuclearize Korean Peninsula

The Vietnamese government has demanded that Facebook takes immediate action to correct a map of Vietnam that does not include the Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagoes. The Ministry of Information and Communications said on Sunday it had sent a notice to Facebook Inc., asking it to clarify the wrongful representation of Vietnam’s sovereignty over the two archipelagoes on its map. The map depicts the archipelagoes as Chinese territory at a time when the international community has backed criticism of China’s recent actions in the disputed South China Sea, which Vietnam calls the East Sea. A Facebook representative has responded that there was some “confusion” over the map, that it is a technical error without political intention, said Le Quang Tu Do, an official from the communication ministry. The issue is being investigated and measures will be taken soon to deal with it, the representative added. As of Monday morning, the map has not been … [Read more...] about Vietnam demands Facebook fix wrong depiction of its sovereignty

By Viet Anh  &nbspJune 28, 2018 | 03:44 pm GMT+7 Avoid complicating issues, Vietnam urges as ASEAN, China work on code of conduct in the South China Sea. Vietnam wants all parties to stay calm and work for a Code of Conduct that is enforceable and regulates the behavior of all parties in disputed waters of the South China Sea under international law, a senior official said. The country is worried about China’s military actions that go against regional declaration of conduct in the South China Sea, because they can negatively impact negotiations on a Code of Conduct for the disputed waters, which is known in Vietnam as the East Sea. Vietnamese deputy foreign minister Nguyen Quoc Dung said Wednesday that China’s island reconstruction and installation and testing of military equipment in disputed areas went against the Declaration on the Conduct (DOC) of the Parties in the South China Sea. He was speaking at the 15th ASEAN-China Senior Officials Meeting on … [Read more...] about Vietnam calls for calm negotiations over maritime conduct

The United States is considering intensified naval patrols in the South China Sea in a bid to challenge China’s growing militarization of the waterway, actions that could further raise the stakes in one of the world’s most volatile areas. The Pentagon is weighing a more assertive program of so-called freedom-of-navigation operations close to Chinese installations on disputed reefs, two U.S. officials and Western and Asian diplomats close to discussions said. The officials declined to say how close they were to finalizing a decision. Such moves could involve longer patrols, ones involving larger numbers of ships or operations involving closer surveillance of Chinese facilities in the area, which now include electronic jamming equipment and advanced military radars. U.S. officials are also pushing international allies and partners to increase their own naval deployments through the vital trade route as China strengthens its military capabilities on both the Paracel and … [Read more...] about US weighs more South China Sea patrols to confront ‘new reality’ of China

With recent landing and taking off drills carried out by Chinese bombers on the Paracel Islands, a Vietnamese major general said Vietnam should be on high alert for a possible establishment of an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) by China in the South China Sea. China’s activities have reflected its attempts to turn a “Chinese dream” of becoming a world power into reality. China is already using its Belt and Road Initiative to influence the region and control the waters, said major general, professor Nguyen Hong Quan, former deputy head of the Military Strategy Institute under the Ministry of Public Security. The Chinese air force announced on May 18 that several of its bombers, including the long-range, nuclear strike capable H-6K, had carried out landing and taking off drills at an island airfield in the Paracel Islands for the first time. The base H-6 aircraft’s combat radius of nearly 1,000 nautical miles means China’s basic bombers taking off … [Read more...] about Vietnam should be on guard against China’s possible air-defense zone: major general