SOUTH-EAST ASIA: Smarting Over Sino-Vietnam Spratlys Deal (1) An Inter Press Service Feature

BANGKOK, Nov 25 (IPS) - An agreement by China and Vietnam to start negotiations on the dispute over the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea and share the potentially enormous wealth of the area has done little to ease security concerns in the region.

According to diplomats and analysts in South-east Asia, the agreement reached by the two longtime rivals in three days of talks in Hanoi this week appears to support Beijing's insistence that the dispute was a bilateral problem and ignore the claims of other countries.

This ensures that the barren but strategically and potentially oil- and gas-rich islands will continue to be a primary source of instability and anxiety in the region, they add.

China and Vietnam are only two of the Spratlys' six claimants. But they have been the most aggressive among the claimant-nations that include the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan, and have even granted oil exploration rights to U.S. firms within the disputed area in the past two years.

In a joint communique at the end of Chinese President Jiang Zemin's landmark visit to Vietnam on Tuesday, the two countries announced they had agreed to set up an experts' group to discuss South China Sea disputes, including the Spratlys.

But pending a peaceful settlement, China and Vietnam could start joint development of the island group, Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen told a press briefing at the end of the talks.

Qian said the most important thing to have emerged from the visit was the consensus on the need to shelve disputes while Hanoi and Beijing develop their economies.

He did not mention how the claims of Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines came into this new accommodation with Vietnam. Said Zemin: "Problems between China and Vietnam will be resolved through bilateral negotiations."

Such pronouncements have irked the Spratlys' other claimants, most especially those belonging to the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN).

"The fate of the Spratlys cannot be left up to China and Vietnam," said Bangkok's Nation newspaper, adding that a peaceful settlement of the issue must allow all claimant countries in the region to enjoy the area's benefits.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service