Opinion
UPDATED: 09:46, October 22, 2004
Problems of trespass in South China Sea
Our Foreign Ministry expressed "serious concern and strong discontent" on Wednesday over the Vietnamese National Oil & Gas Company's recent invitation for bids to explore oil and gas in the South China Sea waters, over which both countries claim sovereignty.
We have no reason to feel otherwise, considering that the ink on the joint communique the two countries' heads of state signed two weeks ago is hardly dry.
>From his visit to Viet Nam earlier this month, Premier Wen Jiabao took home
promises of goodwill by Vietnamese leaders.
In a joint communique published on October 8, both governments pledged commitment to a peaceful conclusion to their territorial disputes.
They vowed to abide by the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, a product of consensus between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to "conscientiously maintain restraint, and neither side shall take any unilateral action that complicates or amplifies disputes."
That shared commitment once instilled profound optimism in this country,
where good-neighbourly ties stand high on the national agenda.
>From the unpleasant recent past we learn that confrontation yields no
satisfactory solutions.
In the code of conduct in the South China Sea, which both governments signed in 2002, they also promised self-restraint and constructive approaches to territorial disputes.
Made in the names of the two countries, those promises should be taken seriously.
Regretfully, our Vietnamese neighbours have failed to show the restraint they promised.
In April, Vietnamese travel authorities took tourists to islands in waters of disputed sovereignty.
Vietnam Oil's latest exploration attempt is another unilateral action that is close to provocation.
It is an undisguised disregard of all the bilateral and multilateral agreements and arrangements in place. It is by no means constructive.
Instead, it complicates and amplifies the disputes.
Resolution of the territorial disputes over the Beibu Gulf waters shows that we can work out solutions acceptable to both.
The process of negotiations may be long. It took us 27 years to solve the Beibu Gulf conundrum. But the outcome proved to be worth the time. The proclaimed commitment of the two countries to stability in the South China Sea would sound hollow without the backup of patience and restraint.
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