Committee: The Disarmament and International Security Committee (DISEC)
Topic: Territorial Disputes Over Underwater Resources
Country: Vietnam
In recent years, natural resources extraction and development has been taken as a
serious issue, particularly undersea mining. The South China Sea (SCS), potentially
rich in oil and natural gas deposits, is considered as one of the cases of territorial
disputes which involve both island and maritime disputes among sovereign states
(China, Philippines, Vietnam, ˋMalaysia, Brunei, Indonesia etc.). Vietnam welcomes
the cooperation and assistance from the United States to solve this problem.
The biggest security risk within the disputes over the SCS is China’s ambition of
occupying almost the entire SCS, asserting what it considers its maritime rights. In
effect, China is trying to use the "historical claims and rights" argument to negate the
UNCLOS of the Sea. According to international law, to consider a bay or a body of
water to be a historical one in practices and subsequent to the rulings of international
courts or referees, it must satisfy at least two conditions: 1. in this area, the coastal
country must truly practice its sovereignty continuously, peacefully and over the
long-term; 2. having the open acceptation, or silence, without opposition from other
countries, especially the neighboring ones that have interests in this sea area. For the
first condition, China has to prove that their authorities have practiced its sovereignty
in the whole East Sea truly, continuously and “peacefully” for “a long time”. This is
difficult because Chinese feudal systems’ official documents in the years of 1294,
1461 and 1842, before 1909, all confirmed that the southern end of China is the Nhai
District on Hainan Island. So, the nine-dotted line, which China depicts its maritime
territorial claims in SCS, has been considered as a violation of the international sea.
On the other hand, an Indonesian Ambassador1 do not consider historical basis as
effective evidence used to claim the sovereignty over the territorial disputes. In
addition, the nine-dotted line has been officially protested by the Philippines, Vietnam,
Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia. If China’s position on the issue—that coastal states
do have a right under UNCLOS to regulate the activities of foreign military forces in
their EEZs—were to gain greater international acceptance under international law, it
could substantially affect U.S. naval operations not only in the SCS and ECS, but
around the world.
Cooperating with U.S. and related organizations is needed. As a Pacific nation
and resident power, the United States has a national interest in the maintenance of
1
August 2011, the Indonesian Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and the European Union
obliquely dismissed it as being "at best ridiculous" as follows, ... the "historic claims of historic
waters" is problematic for Asia because Asia is a region rich with ancient kingdoms which were
both land and maritime powers
peace and stability, respect for international law, freedom of navigation, and
unimpeded lawful commerce in the South China Sea. In U.S. perspective, China’s
action in SCS is against the economic interest such as oil and gas exploration and
commercial shipping of the United State. China resists U.S. involvement in the
disputes by indicated that this will internationalize the issue. The intervention of the
U.S may suppress and limit China’s actions over the SCS. As a conclusion, Vietnam
expects the U.S. will express deeper concern and provide more assistance in resolving
the conflict and disputes over the SCS and will support any possible solutions that
may resolve this issue without military force.
Vietnam suggests the ASEAN can further discuss the durable solution through
ASEAN Working Group on Coastal and Marine Environment (AWGCME). In
addtion, Vietnam is looking forward to developing deeper partnership with the
ASEAN member states. Besides, we hope that the arbitral tribunal will issue an award
in accordance with international law that will direct China to respect our sovereign
rights and jurisdiction over our EEZ, continental shelf, contiguous zone, and territorial
sea over the SCS, and to desist from undertaking unlawful acts that violate our rights.