By Huy Duong
Since 2011, the disputes over maritime space in the South China Sea have involved not only which country has sovereign and jurisdictional rights over an area, but also whether an area constitutes disputed waters. This is an important question that must be answered with certain principles.
China’s National Offshore Oil Corporation has, on 23 June 2012, invited bids for nine blocks for oil & gas exploration in the South China Sea. The blocks lie inside Vietnam’s declared Exclusive Economic Zone, bounded to the West by China’s “U-shaped line”, and extending to 57 nautical miles off the Vietnamese mainland.
Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated on 26 June 2012 that this area “lies entirely within Viet Nam’s 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone and continental shelf … It is absolutely not a disputed area”. China’s MOFA responded that its jurisdiction applies to this area and referred to the “proper settlement of maritime disputes”, thereby asserting that the area is disputed.
This controversy on whether an area constitutes disputed waters echoes the incident in May 2011 in which China’s Maritime Surveillance ships cut the seismic cable being towed by a Vietnamese geological survey vessel. At that time, Vietnam asserted that the incident took place in undisputed waters, while China disagreed.
A similar controversy exists between China and the Philippines regarding the EEZ in the Reed Bank area, which the Philippines regards as not being part of the Spratlys and therefore undisputedly its own, while China maintains otherwise.
The Need To Define The Disputed Areas
These controversies raise the question “Where are the disputed areas in the South China Sea?” Surprisingly, no claimant to the disputed islands and rocks in the South China Sea has declared the limits of its claims to maritime space as derived from these features, so the boundaries of the disputed areas are unknown. Since the disputes have proved intractable, the need to manage them and reduce the risks of conflict breaking out is paramount. Unfortunately, the absence of declared, let alone agreed, boundaries for the disputed areas, makes managing the disputes extremely difficult. It also increases the risk of mismatched expectations and conflicts.
Read the full story at Eurasia Review