Conduct code talks at Asean meeting as Vietnam raises China survey in disputed South China Sea

 

Foreign ministers of the group gathered in Bangkok Tuesday for the meeting, in which it was expected the dispute over the sea’s jurisictional boundaries would be discussed in order to push ahead the code of conduct.

 

Vietnam’s foreign ministry spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang earlier said that Hanoi was concerned over a report that recent activities of the Chinese geological survey vessel group Haiyang Dizhi 8 had violated Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf in the South China Sea.

 

The area, which is known in Vietnam as East Sea, fully belongs to Vietnam in line with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), of which both Vietnam and China are members.Vietnam has contacted the Chinese side many times via different channels, handed over diplomatic notes to protest China’s violations and demanded that China immediately withdraw all vessels from its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), she said.

 

According to a Vietnamese report, China on July 2 deployed the geological survey ship Haiyang Dizhi 8 and its over 30-ship accompanying fleet to conduct geological research within Vietnam’s EEZ in the south of the South China Sea. The area surrounded Japanese oil drill Hakuryu 5, which is operating under a contract between Vietnam and its Japanese partners.

 

The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative reported in the middle of this month that the same China Coast Guard (CCG) vessel has harassed oil and gas operations by its neighbours in contested waters on opposite sides of the South China Sea twice in the last six weeks.

 

A Chinese state-owned vessel, meanwhile, has been undertaking a seismic survey of oil and gas blocks off the Vietnamese coast, the report said. “This risks a confrontation between the contingent of CCG and militia boats escorting the survey ship and a group of Vietnamese vessels dispatched to the area.”

 

As the incident came to US attention prior to the Asean meeting, a senior US State Department official said in a telephone conference over the weekend that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would raise the issue of jurisdiction in the South China Sea during a series of meetings with Asean, including the Asean Regional Forum, which his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi would also attend.

 

However, there is no official confirmation whether the recent incident in the contentious sea would be raised at the Asean meeting this week, as the group is mostly focused on the negotiation of a Code of Conduct (COC), the first reading of which the group and China wanted to conclude by the end of this year.

 

All parties have welcomed efforts by Asean and China to agree to a legally binding Code of Conduct to control the behaviour of riparian states and to guarantee freedom of navigation and flyover, but the interpretation of the COC is open to disagreement.

 

The Chinese ambassador to Asean, Huang Xilian, said peace and stability in the South China Sea are not without challenges, insisting that the biggest threat actually comes from external forces.

 

Certain major countries outside the region frequently send military aircraft and vessels to “flare up tensions” in the South China Sea under the pretext of freedom of navigation, he said. “They either break into the territorial waters of other countries or engage in joint military exercises. They also attempt to intervene in COC consultations, as they worry about the potential bounding impact of regional maritime rules,” Huang said in an e-mail interview with The Nation.

 

Meanwhile the US official said, “It is interesting that China is pushing on these states to limit with whom they do military relations exercises and then with whom they do offshore resource development.”