Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Tue, 8 Sep 1992 10:23:54 -0400
From:         Nhan Tran <tran@PEORA.SDC.CCUR.COM>
Subject:      NEWS/VN: VN again demands halt to China oil-driling

09/06

VIETNAM AGAIN DEMANDS HALT TO CHINA OIL-DRILLING

    By Lai Kwok Kin
    JAKARTA, Sept 6, Reuter - Vietnam repeated demands that China stop exploring
for oil in what Hanoi claims as its territorial waters and said Beijing's
actions could threaten regional security.
    "The Chinese activities have caused a lot of concern not only because of the
dispute between Vietnam and China on some territorial waters but (because) it
relates to the security of the whole region," Deputy Foreign Minister Le Mai
told Reuters in an interview during the Non-Aligned Movement summit here.
    "...I think China will have to respond to the Vietnamese requests for an
immediate halt to the oil-drilling and other activities in Vietnam's territorial
waters," Le Mai said.
    On Saturday Hanoi accused China of setting up an illegal oil exploration
drilling platform in the Gulf of Tonkin and urged it to withdraw a drilling
vessel and a seismic survey ship.
    Vietnam earlier protested against China's award in May of a contract to
Crestone Energy Corp of the U.S. to explore for oil in an area which Hanoi says
is in its continental shelf.
    Le Mai said both disputes would figure prominently at talks on the land
border to be held soon in Hanoi.
    "It will be a good chance for us to express our ideas and concerns," he
said. "We are trying to convey to the Chinese the official position of Vietnam.
Let us see what happens next."
    Asked if Vietnam would resort to force to defend its territory, Le Mai said,
"We do not want to seem as if we are preparing for confrontation. The question
of territorial sovereignty is sacred to every nation.
    "What we want now is to appeal for calmness and clear-sightedness in
achieving a peaceful solution."
    The two countries fought an inconclusive war in 1979 and their navies
clashed in the Spratly islands in the South China Sea in 1988. They normalised
diplomatic ties only last November.
    Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Manh Cam met his Chinese counterpart Qian
Qichen in Jakarta on Wednesday, before the protest about the latest incident.
Cam told Qian that issues such as the dispute over the Crestone contract should
be settled "before Vietnam could take into account China's call for greater
interest of peace and friendship," Le Mai said.
    Beijing said on Saturday the ships were exploring in waters under Chinese
jurisdiction.
    "The Chinese oil-drilling ships in question were working on the Chinese side
of the central line of the (Gulf of Tonkin), an area which is under China's
jurisdiction," a foreign ministry statement said.
    It said China and Vietnam held differing views on the delimitation of the
Gulf of Tonkin but China had always stood for a peaceful solution.
    Diplomats said Hanoi feared China was making a regional power push to fill
the vacuum left by the collapse of the Soviet Union. They said the United States
was now preoccupied with domestic economic problems before the November
election.
    Diplomats said China was acting before Vietnam joins the Association of
South East Asian Nations, which groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
    Vietnam could ask the group to respond collectively to any complaints of
territorial violations once it became a member.
    ASEAN has expressed serious concern about tensions arising from disputes in
the South China Sea, including over the potentially oil-rich disputed Spratly
Islands.
    The Spratlys were discussed during the non-aligned summit despite the
objections of China, an observer in the Movement.
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