Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Wed, 9 Sep 1992 17:45:31 -0400
From:         Nhan Tran <tran@PEORA.SDC.CCUR.COM>
Subject:      NEWS: Spratlys

09/09

Vietnam and China seek to smooth troubled waters

    NEW DELHI, Sept 9, Reuter - Vietnam repeated on Wednesday its demand that
China stop prospecting for oil in what it called Vietnamese territorial waters
but foreign ministers of both sides said the dispute would not escalate into an
armed conflict.
    "Last May, China signed a contract with an American company for drilling
oil. The area is precisely on the continental shelf of Vietnam. We have asked
China to cancel the contract," Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Manh Cam told
a news conference in New Delhi.
    "Earlier China promulgated a law on the sea...covering the continental shelf
of Vietnam...This month they have sent a ship to drill for oil there."
    Vietnam had protested to China, Cam said. But he ruled out the possibility
of the issue escalating into an armed conflict.
    "We decided at our summit meeting that relations would not come back to the
period of the past 10 years," Cam said.
    Vietnam and China fought a border war in 1979. Their navies also clashed
briefly over the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea in 1988.
    Speaking in Bangkok earlier, Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen also tried
to calm troubled waters.
    The Spratly islands dispute would not affect normalisation of ties between
the two communist neighbours, he told reporters after meeting Thai Foreign
Minister Arsa Sarasin.
    "In our view, once the issue comes to peaceful negotiations it is not
difficult to reach agreement, or at least it will not lead to confrontation,"
Qian said.
    Cam said that the issue had affected the process of normalising relations
with China.
    Chinese Premier Li Peng was expected to visit Vietnam this year but said
several problems relating to border and territorial water disputes had to be
sorted out beforehand, Cam added.
    He said Vietnam favoured a regional effort to resolve the Spratly islands
dispute.
    "We have proposed that the issue of the Spratly islands should be resolved
by the six countries which have a claim on them," Cam said.
    China, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Taiwan lay claim to
all or part of the string of reefs and barren islands, thought to be rich in oil
and mineral deposits.
    U.S.-based Crestone Energy Corp has signed a deal with China to drill for
oil in the Spratlys.
    Cam was speaking at the end of talks between Vietnam's Communist Party chief
Do Muoi and Indian Prime Minister Narasimha Rao during which the two countries
discussed economic and defence cooperation.
    He said India was assisting Vietnam in setting up a nuclear power plant.
    Vietnamese officials will visit India soon to finalise details, Cam said.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

09/09

China says Spratlys row can be settled peacefully

    BANGKOK, Sept 9, Reuter - China's dispute with Vietnam over the Spratly
Islands can be settled peacefully, Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen said on
Wednesday.
    The issue would not affect the normalisation of ties between the two
communist countries, he told reporters after meeting his Thai counterpart, Arsa
Sarasin, in Bangkok.
    "In our view, once the issue comes to peaceful negotiations it is not
difficult to reach agreement, or at least it will not lead to confrontation," he
said.
    China, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Taiwan lay claim to
all or part of the string of reefs and barren islands in the South China Sea,
thought to be rich in oil and mineral deposits.
    The area has emerged as a regional flashpoint because of a Chinese military
buildup there.
    Vietnam complained loudly about the recent signing of an oil exploration
agreement between Beijing and the U.S.-based Crestone Energy Corp on what it
says is part of its continental shelf.
    China and Vietnam fought a brief naval battle over the islands in 1988.
    Qian said Deputy Foreign Minister Xu Dunxin would visit Hanoi later this
month as part of the normalisation process between the two countries, whose
relationship was strained by the war in Cambodia in which they backed opposing
sides.
    Chinese Prime Minister Li Peng planned to visit Hanoi by the end of the
year, he said.
    Qian is in Bangkok for a ministerial meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation forum.
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU