(VOVWORLD) - China is engaged in a long-term and consistent campaign of coercing Southeast Asian countries to abandon their legitimate rights in the East Sea, according to an American scholar.
 DK1 - a complex for economic, scientific, and technological activities - lies on Vietnam's EEZ. (Photo: VNA) |
Tensions have been escalating in the sea since the Chinese survey ship Haiyang Dizhi 8 and its escort vessels returned to Vietnam’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) earlier this month.
China’s behavior has become increasingly antagonistic as the country has deployed more ships to the East Sea than ever before, said Gregory B. Poling, Director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) and a fellow with the Southeast Asia Program at the US’s Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
In light of such provocations, he urged Southeast Asian nations to draw a line in the sand for the protection of their rights according to international law.
Echoing Poling’s view, Professor Stein Tonnesson from the Oslo Peace Research Institute said China deterring regional countries from conducting lawful activities in the East Sea and interfering in Vietnam’s oil and gas mining in its EEZ is problematic. He advised Southeast Asian countries to push for dialogues in order to seek rational and practical solutions to the issues.
As ASEAN Chair next year and a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the next two years, Vietnam is positioned open pivotal dialogues and negotiations, according to Professor Kavi Chongkittavorn, Senior Fellow at the Institute of Security and International Studies ofThailand’s Chulalongkorn Univeristy.