In this webinar, Dr Vu Hai Dang provided a comprehensive overview of the South China Sea disputes between Vietnam and China, examining issues that have been resolved and those currently under negotiation. He also provided insights into how the disputes might evolve in the future.
VIETNAM STUDIES PROGRAMME WEBINAR
Tuesday, 1 March 2022 – ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute hosted a webinar on “Vietnam – China South China Sea Disputes: Recent Developments and Prospects” presented by Dr Vu Hai Dang, an Ocean Law and Policy Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for International Law – National University of Singapore.
Vietnam and China are involved in several disputes in the South China Sea. The first dispute and also the least serious one is the maritime boundary dispute in the mouth of the Gulf of Tonkin. The second dispute concerns sovereignty over the Paracel Islands, which China took over by force from South Vietnam in 1974. There are also multilateral disputes in which Vietnam and China are parties. First, the Spratlys Islands dispute is between Vietnam, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, and Malaysia. Second, Beijing’s expansive maritime claims based on the nine-dash line has sparked dispute between China and several international institutions and countries, including Vietnam.
After providing an overview of these disputes, Dr Dang discussed the ongoing maritime negotiation processes between Vietnam and China. These include working-level negotiations for maritime delimitation and joint development in the Gulf of Tonkin, working-level negotiations on joint development at sea, working-level negotiations for maritime cooperation in non-sensitive areas, and government-level negotiations on territorial and boundary issues.
Dr Dang also talked about maritime cooperation activities between Vietnam and China. The two neighbours engaged in joint fisheries cooperation in the Gulf of Tonkin through an agreement signed in 2000 along with the Gulf of Tonkin Delimitation Agreement. This agreement, however, became expired in 2020 and has not been renewed. In 2006, Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) signed an agreement on joint exploration in the Gulf of Tonkin. Joint patrols, exchanges and joint exercises between navies and coast guards of the two countries are conducted twice per year in the Gulf of Tonkin. Since 2017, the two countries have also released millions of fingerlings of fish and shrimps in the Gulf of Tonkin as a way to protect fisheries resources. Finally, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Vietnam and the State Oceanic Administration of China has been cooperating to manage the environment and resources in the Gulf of Tonkin.
However, several issues are responsible for the ongoing tensions between Vietnam and China in the South China Sea. The most contentious one is the harassment of Vietnamese fishermen in waters around the Paracels by Chinese maritime forces. This has led to unfortunate incidents, including the loss of lives. China has also on numerous occasions hindered Vietnam’s oil and gas activities in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and continental shelf, sometimes at the expense of maritime safety. Chinese ships, usually accompanied by Chinese coast guard vessels, have also infringed on Vietnam’s EEZ. For example, in 2019, Chinese survey vessel Haiyang Dizhi 8 conducted research activities in waters near Vietnam-controlled Vanguard Bank for three months. Dr Dang noted that other Southeast Asian littoral states have faced similar harassment by China.
At the end of his presentation, Dr Dang discussed how bilateral disputes in the South China Sea might evolve in the future. He was of the view that Vietnam and China will delimit the mouth of the Gulf of Tonkin, continue and expand joint development in the Gulf of Tonkin, sign a maritime search and rescue agreement, and continue to support the implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) and the conclusion of a Code of Conduct for the South China Sea (COC).
On the challenges, Dr Dang did not see any prospects for resolving the bilateral sovereignty dispute over the Paracel Islands because China refuses to recognise the dispute and is therefore unwilling to negotiate this issue with Vietnam. Similarly, despite China’s requests, Vietnam will not agree to do joint oil and gas development in the Vanguard Bank as from the Vietnamese perspective, this is a non-disputed area. Finally, Dr Dang was of the view that negotiations between ASEAN and China on the COC remain difficult as the two sides disagree on specific provisions, such as dispute settlement mechanisms, geographical scope, and the role of third parties.
Nonetheless, Dr Dang was optimistic that the chance for a war to break out between Vietnam and China over the South China Sea is low as both sides have been engaging in robust cooperation and working hard to resolve their differences. To stress this point, he mentioned a 2011 agreement between General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President Xi Jinping on principles guiding the settlement of maritime issues between the two countries. Dr Dang emphasised that it is the choice of the relevant parties to pursue peace in the South China Sea, adding that “if peace is winning in the South China Sea, peace is winning everywhere in the world.”
In the Q&A session, Dr Dang answered questions from the audience about the context behind Vietnam-China maritime negotiations, the prospect for the maritime delimitation in the mouth on the Gulf of Tonkin, Vietnam’s land reclamation activities in the Spratlys, further joint maritime cooperation between the two countries, and the role of external powers in promoting peace in the South China Sea.
