Vietnam urges world to protest Chinese actions in S. China Sea
By Puy Kea / Kyodo News | 11 May 2014
NAYPYITAW - Vietnam has called on not only the
10-members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations but individuals
and organizations around the world to protest against China for
infringement of international law in the South China Sea, an ASEAN
diplomat said Sunday.
"We express our deep gratitude to and urgently call on ASEAN members,
other countries in the world, individuals, and international
organizations, to continue voicing their protest against (Chinese
actions in the South China Sea) as serious violations and support the
legitimate demand by Vietnam," the diplomat quoted Vietnamese Prime
Minister Nguyen Tan Dung as telling both the plenary and "retreat"
sessions of the ASEAN leaders at their annual meeting Sunday in the Myanmar capital Naypyitaw.
Dung spent most of his 10-minute remarks at the plenary on the South China Sea, which he referred to as the East Sea.
He told the leaders that since May 1 China has moved a drilling
platform escorted by more than 80 armed civilian and military vessels
into Vietnamese waters and installed the platform at a location 80
nautical miles into the Vietnamese continental shelf and exclusive
economic zone as prescribed in the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of
the Sea.
"This extremely dangerous action has been and is directly threatening
peace, stability and maritime security and safety in the East Sea," Dung
said.
On Saturday,
after urging from Vietnam, the ASEAN foreign ministers issued a rare
stand-alone statement expressing "serious concern" about growing tension
over territorial claims in the South China Sea between China and
several ASEAN members, but they failed to mention China, or any
individual ASEAN state, by name in the statement.
Soon after the statement was issued in Myanmar, Hua Chunying, a Chinese
Foreign Ministry spokesman, said China is "always opposed" to countries
"attempting" to use the South China Sea issue to harm ""overall
friendship and cooperation" between China and ASEAN.
As the top leaders of the 10-country bloc met Sunday,
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono expressed sympathy with
Vietnam by saying, "We cannot be dictated by any force outside, about
democracy, about human rights, anything, even though we realize that
there are universal values that we must respect in accordance with ASEAN
charter...we cannot be pulled by the U.S. or by the Chinese when they
were facing conflicts on matters of the South China Sea."
"We also have the moral courage to remind anybody that they should not
use their military might, they should not use gunboat diplomacy for
example, in the South China Sea, This is my opinion, and it's our
strength in ASEAN," he said.
Other leaders, at the later retreat designed for free-flowing
discussions, seemed more ready to discuss issues beyond the
Vietnam-Chinese impasse.
Recently, there have been fears ASEAN unity might be disrupted by the
maritime disputes that involve several countries in the bloc and
outsider China, with those not sharing a maritime border with China
afraid of upsetting the Asian powerhouse.
Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam are claimants in the
South China Sea, with Vietnam and the Philippines the most vocal in
expressing their rights.
One ASEAN diplomat suggested Vietnam made good progress in negotiations
in Naypyitaw to get the rest of ASEAN on its side in the row with
China, but the diplomat also suggested the solidarity may not extend
much beyond expressions of support on paper over the longer term.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
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