Vietnam said yesterday live-fire naval drills scheduled for tomorrow were “routine” and said it would welcome efforts by the international community, including the US, to help resolve disputes in the South China Sea.
Tensions in the region have risen over the past two weeks, with China and Vietnam trading accusations of sovereignty violations in the sea, home to important shipping lanes and potentially large oil and gas reserves.
The barrage of allegations followed an incident, made public by Vietnam late last month, in which authorities said a Chinese ship deliberately severed cables being used by a Vietnamese survey vessel in Vietnamese waters.
QUARRELS
Although a military clash seems unlikely, the tensions could trouble diplomacy and possibly draw in the US, which took up the South China Sea dispute last year.
China has also quarreled with the Philippines in recent weeks over maritime claims.
The Web site of a company involved in maritime safety, vms-north.vn, warned vessels to avoid live-fire drills in an area off central Vietnam.
“All vessels are to refrain from engaging in activities in the area during the live-fire period,” the Web site said.
The drills would take place from 8am to 12pm and 7pm to 12am, it said.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga confirmed the drills, calling them “a routine annual training activity of the Vietnam navy in the area where the Vietnam navy regularly conducts training [activities] that are programmed and planned annually for units of the Vietnam People’s Military.”
COMMON INTERESTS
Asked about a possible role for the US or others in resolving the disputes, Nga said in separate remarks late on Friday: “Maintaining maritime peace, stability, security and safety in the Eastern Sea is in the common interests of all nations within and outside the region. Every effort by the international community toward maintaining peace and stability in the Eastern Sea is welcome.”
The Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also claim territory in the South China Sea, but China’s claim is by far the largest, a vast U-shape over most of the sea’s 1.7 million square kilometers, including the Spratly and Paracel archipelagos.
China has sought to resolve its territorial disputes on a one-on-one basis, but concern over its growing military might and increasing willingness to use that might to assert its claims has brought the Southeast Asian claimants closer together.
INTERNATIONALIZATION
Last year, as chair of ASEAN, Vietnam actively sought to internationalize the issue and succeeded in putting it on the agenda at a regional security forum, much to China’s chagrin.
Beijing announced on Thursday that its navy would hold “routine” drills at the end of the month in international waters in the Pacific Ocean.
China’s growing military prowess and reach have alarmed other countries in the region, especially Japan and Taiwan.
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