Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/22/us-vietnam-china-idUSBREA4K1AK20140522
(Reuters) - Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said his government was considering various "defense options" against
China, including legal action, following the deployment of a Chinese oil rig to waters in the South China Sea that Hanoi also claims.
Dung's comments, given
in a written response to questions from Reuters, were the first time he
has suggested Vietnam would take legal measures, and drew an angry
response from
China, which insisted the rig was in its sovereign waters.
"Vietnam
is considering various defense options, including legal actions in
accordance with international law," Dung said in an email sent late on
Wednesday, while on a visit to Manila. He did not elaborate on the other
options being considered.
"I
wish to underscore that Vietnam will resolutely defend its sovereignty
and legitimate interests because territorial sovereignty, including
sovereignty of its maritime zones and islands, is sacred," he said.
China accused Vietnam of stoking regional tensions.
"Now they are distorting the facts,
conflating right and wrong on the global stage, blackening China and
making unreasonable accusations against China," foreign ministry
spokesman Hong Lei told a regular news briefing.
"Just
who is the one who is repeatedly challenging other countries'
sovereignty? Who is the one who is causing tensions in the seas? Who on
earth is destroying peace and stability in the South China Sea? Facts
speak louder than words."
In
March, the Philippines submitted a case to an arbitration tribunal in
The Hague, challenging China's claims to the South China Sea. It was the
first time Beijing has been subjected to international legal scrutiny
over the waters.
Beijing has refused to participate in the case and warned Manila that its submission would seriously damage ties.
Anti-Chinese
violence flared in Vietnam last week after a $1 billion deepwater rig
owned by China's state-run CNOOC oil company was parked 240 km (150
miles) off the coast of Vietnam.
Hanoi
says the rig is in its 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone and on
its continental shelf.
China has said the rig was operating completely
within its waters.
The spat is the worst breakdown in ties between the two Communist states since a brief border war in 1979.
"My
own sense is that if the Vietnamese government start to ratchet up
their tactics, the Chinese probably are not going to blink," said
Christopher Johnson, a former senior China analyst at the CIA, now at
the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "So
you could have a very difficult situation."
SHARPENED RHETORIC
The
rig move was the latest in a series of confrontations between China and
some of its neighbours. Washington has sharpened rhetoric towards
Beijing, describing a pattern of "provocative" actions by China.
U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry discussed the situation by telephone with
Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh on
Wednesday, the two governments said. Kerry also invited Minh to visit
Washington, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
Dung,
in some of his strongest comments yet on the breakdown in ties with
Beijing, said that while Vietnam had sought to use dialogue to settle
the situation, the response from China had been an increase in force and
intimidation.
"There is a vast gap between the words and deeds of China," he said.
He
followed up those remarks in a speech at the World Economic Forum on
East Asia in which he warned the maritime territorial tensions could
endanger global trade.
"The
risk of conflict will disrupt these huge flows of goods, and have
unforeseeable impact on regional and world economies," he said. "It may
even reverse the trend of global economic recovery."
Both
sides have traded accusations over who was to blame for a series of
collisions between Vietnamese and Chinese vessels in waters near the oil
rig earlier this month.
China
claims about 90 percent of the South China Sea, displaying its reach on
official maps with a so-called nine-dash line that stretches deep into
the maritime heart of Southeast Asia. The Philippines, Vietnam,
Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have claims to parts of the potentially
energy-rich waters.
HANOI WEIGHS OPTIONS
Vietnamese
Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam told Reuters on Thursday that Hanoi
had been staying well-briefed on the progress of Manila's arbitration
case.
"We have followed
this case very closely and would like to use all measures provided by
international law to protect our legitimate interests," he said in an
interview in Tokyo.
Diplomatic sources in Vietnam have previously told Reuters that China put pressure on Hanoi over joining the Philippine case.
Manila
is seeking a ruling to confirm its right to exploit the waters in its
exclusive economic zone as allowed under the U.N. Convention on the Law
of the Sea (UNCLOS).
A
ruling against China could prompt other claimants to challenge Beijing,
experts say, although Manila has said it does not expect the tribunal to
reach a decision before the end of 2015.
Any ruling would be unenforceable because there is no body under UNCLOS to police such decisions, legal experts say.
CHINA "BROUGHT US TOGETHER"
To
try to keep up pressure on Beijing, diplomats said Vietnam might host a
meeting with Philippine and Malaysian officials at the end of the month
to discuss how to respond to China, underscoring the nascent
coordination among the three countries. Meetings in February and March
had discussed the Philippine legal case.
A
senior Malaysian diplomatic source told Reuters last week that China's
assertiveness had given momentum to the three-way talks and "brought us
together", but he played down the discussions as little more than "chit
chat" at this stage.
Malaysia had no intention of filing a legal case against China, the source added.
The
growing Manila-Hanoi co-operation was a potential turning point in the
tensions over the South China Sea that have intensified over the last
five years said Carl Thayer of the Australian Defence Force Academy in
Canberra.
"Vietnam may be
siding up to the U.S. via the Philippines," he said. "A joint or two
separate legal challenges would really put China on the spot, and
outside international law."
