Vietnam, Australia issue sea statement

Canberra will offer only symbolic gesture rather than concrete action: Chinese experts

China called on joint efforts to safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea, after Australia and Vietnam issued a statement claiming their “concerns” over the situation in the sea.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and a high-ranking delegation from Vietnam are visiting Australia and attending the ASEANAustralia Special Summit from Wednesday to Sunday. The two sides issued a joint statement on the establishment of a strategic partnership between Vietnam and Australia on Thursday, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

“China and ASEAN countries are all making efforts to safeguard peace, stability, development and prosperity in the region. We hope all nonregional forces can be respectful and supportive of this,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang

said at Friday’s routine press conference.

Chinese experts saying Vietnam is trying to gain foreign support but Australia will just offer a symbolic gesture of support rather than concrete action.

“With the situation in the South China Sea turning for the better, China and ASEAN face a golden opportunity. We all agree to develop a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea to preserve its hard-won tranquility,” said Foreign Minister Wang Yi at a press conference on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People’s Congress on March 8.

“While China and other countries in this region focus on solving problems without interference from the outside, Vietnam seeks support from outside,” Xu Liping, a senior research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

“This shows that Vietnam is looking for more bargaining chips, because it doesn’t just have a dispute with China, its claim of sovereignty of the Nansha Islands also affects other countries, like Brunei and Malaysia,” Xu said.

Wang Yi said some outside forces are not happy with the prevailing calm and are trying to create trouble and muddle the waters. Their frequent show of force with fully armed aircraft and naval vessels is the most destabilizing factor to peace and stability in our region, he said.

However, Australia has very limited influence in the South China Sea, and what Australia can offer to Vietnam is just a symbolic gesture on the joint statement, Xu said.

US interference

Although Australia can’t bring any significant impact to the South China Sea, it can join actions led by the US and play its part in a US-led coalition to contain China in the region, Zhuang Guotu, head of Xiamen University’s Southeast Asian Studies Center, told the Global Times on Friday.

“The US declared China a competitor toward the end of last year, and Australia is actively seeking assistance from the US to increase US presence in the region. So in 2018, the US will continue to interrupt the South China Sea issue together with Australia,” Zhuang said.

A possible measure would be joint military drills or using “joint cruise” as an excuse to send vessels to challenge China’s claim on sovereignty, Zhuang said.

The Trump administration said in its National Security Strategy released in December 2017 that “great power competition has returned” and clearly identified China and Russia as its “competitors.”

After Rex Tillerson was replaced by Mike Pompeo, observers said they see the hardliners controlling foreign policymaking in the White House, and Sino-US relations face uncertainty.

A US aircraft carrier, USS Carl Vinson, arrived in Vietnamese city of Danang on March 5 for the first time since the end of the Vietnam War.

Japan and India will also be invited to join relevant actions, and Vietnam is an ideal partner for the US to influence ASEAN, but Vietnam will not stop negotiating with China, Zhuang said. “Because this would impact its economic ties with China, and what it wants is to use foreign interference as a bargaining chip to its advantage in negotiations,” he noted.