Vietnam orders submarines and warplanes from Russia

BBC News, By Nga Pham, BBC Vietnamese Service

Vietnam has ordered six of the Russian Kilo class submarines

Vietnam has signed billion-dollar contracts to buy submarines and fighter jets from Russia, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has announced in Moscow.

The deals make Vietnam one of the key clients of the Russian arms industry.

The weapons purchases come at a time when disputes over sovereignty are increasing in the South China Sea, which Vietnam calls the East Sea.

Vietnam, China and other countries have competing claims over potentially oil and gas-rich island chains there.

"Vietnam signed contracts for the purchases of submarines and planes from the Russian side," the Vietnamese prime minister said, without elaborating.

Russian agency Interfax quoted unnamed sources as saying that Hanoi was to buy six diesel-electric Kilo-class submarines worth $2bn (£1.2bn).

Vietnam is already awaiting the delivery of eight Sukhoi Su-30MK2 fighter jets from Russia in 2010. It is considering ordering 12 more, Interfax quoted another Russian source as saying.

A regional defence analyst said the rising tension in the South China Sea was "clearly a source of concern" to Hanoi.

The submarine acquisition "would increase [Vietnam's] negotiating power in the maritime disputes", Professor Carlyle Thayer of the Australian Defence Force Academy said.

Chinese general warns of more territorial disputes

The Jakarta Post, The Associated Press | Mon, 03/30/2009 2:13 PM

The global financial crisis is increasing competition for marine resources and could aggravate territorial disputes in the South China Sea, a Chinese general said Monday.

Along with rich fishing grounds, the South China Sea is believed to have large oil and natural gas reserves. The disputed island groups also straddle busy sea lanes that are a crucial to China's economy.

China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines have overlapping claims to all or parts of South China Sea island groups and the waters that surround them.

Air force Lt. Gen. Liu Chengjun called for stepped-up dialogue among the claimants to keep disputes from spinning out of control. Territorial conflicts in the South China Sea have occasionally broken out into armed confrontation, although the countries have more recently sought to resolve differences peacefully.

"The economic crisis is putting pressure on regional stability and could increase territorial disputes," Liu said. "Faced with this possibility, we need to increase dialogue and cooperation."

Liu was speaking at the opening ceremony of a weeklong forum in Beijing featuring top military brass from China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Several members of the association have laid claim to island groups that Beijing disputes.

In recent weeks, Beijing has issued a flurry of diplomatic protests over such disputes and dispatched a converted navy ship to reassert its claims.

The global economic crisis has put millions out of work in China and across east Asia, worsening financial concerns in countries already struggling with vast numbers of poor and threatening large scale social unrest.

Liu said economic desperation was among the factors increasing competition for marine resources - and the potential for clashes. Threats ranging from piracy and transnational crime to the effects of climate change also increased the need for regional cooperation, he said.

The Beijing conference, which includes a visit to an armored division outside the Chinese capital, underscores recent efforts by the traditionally secretive Chinese armed forces to raise their international profile through joint exercises, port calls and participation in United Nations peacekeeping missions.

RI secures more territory through diplomacy: FM

Lilian Budianto, THE JAKARTA POST, BANDUNG | Thu, 03/19/2009 10:49 AM

Despite pressure from powerful international countries, Indonesia had managed to secure itself additional marine territory, expanding the archipelago considerably through persuasive diplomacy, said Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda.

“Through persuasive arguments, Indonesia has not only maintained its existing territory but widened it to 6.2 million square kilometers by expanding our marine territory from the shoreline from 3 nautical miles to 12. All of this occurred through diplomacy, we did not use a bullet to defend our territory.”

Delivering his annual lecture at the University of Padjajaran in Bandung to commemorate the 80th anniversary of former foreign minister Mochtar Kusumaatmadja (1978-1988), Hassan said Indonesia was indebted to Mochtar, who struggled for the birth of landmark 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) provisions for Indonesia. Mochtar, also a professor at the same university, attended the anniversary celebrations Wednesday despite his ailing health.

The 1982 UNCLOS regulations allowed archipelagic states to draw straight lines around the border of its most outlying islands and dry reefs, provided that within those lines were the main islands of the archipelago.

Mochtar was a member of the Indonesian delegation in the first and second Conference on Laws of the Sea at the United Nations in Geneva in 1958 and 1960. The provision, that proposed assigning greater sovereignty to archipelagic nations, was met with challenges from developed countries as it threatened their ability to explore for resources in water territories surrounding archipelagoes. The provision was finally adopted in 1982 during the third conference and the UNCLOS was born.

“The archipelagic states are now being acknowledged by the world. This a significant change from the past, where our water territories served as international areas to benefit other states,” Hassan said.

He said as Indonesia’s marine zone borders 10 different nations, diplomats have treated border diplomacy as a top priority and engaged in thorough discussions over the years. Not all diplomatic efforts have gone without controversy, though.

“Indonesian diplomacy come under fire when we lost the Sipadan and Ligitan Islands to Malaysia after a judicial decision by the ICJ (International Court of Justice). But it should be noted that since then, Indonesia has never claimed those islands as part of its exterior territory [under the UNCLOS baselines],” he said.

“Despite the loss, Indonesia has recorded many successes in closing lengthy border discussions, a testament to our negotiators not giving up despite intense pressure from more developed nations.”

Indonesia had recently aligned its western-maritime borders with Singapore after a five-year negotiation that saw the city-state renounce its reclaimed shore land on the basis of establishing a solid border. Indonesia is currently still at odds with Malaysia over the Ambalat maritime area and with the Philippines over its southern border.

Hikmahanto Juwana, lecturer of international law at the University of Indonesia, said developing countries had not yet obtained benefits from the existing international law, most of which had been skewed to serve the vested interest of more powerful countries.

“International law is too Europe-centric and does not benefit developing countries. The military forces of the United States have frequently conducted exercises in the water territories of other countries.

We have to be strong enough to challenge them under a newly-defined international law,” said Hikmahanto.