Territorial disputes in the South China Sea are likely to drag on for decades, and mounting demand for resources could intensify them, experts said at a conference on the region that was to close yesterday.
The conference addressed one of the most sensitive political topics for Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries. Territorial disputes between China and several Southeast Asian countries over the Spratly and Paracel Islands and wide areas of the ocean floor have led to diplomatic protests, seizures of fishing vessels and other conflicts.
“I think we just have to accept the fact that probably some conflicts are not meant to be solved within this lifetime,” said Nazery Khalid, a senior fellow at the Maritime Institute of Malaysia.
Khalid recommended that countries in the region concentrate on areas of mutual agreement, rather than points of conflict. But participants at the conference saw few areas of agreement, apart from cooperation in meteorology and search-and-rescue efforts.
China claims virtually all of the South China Sea, and its claims overlap with those of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan and Brunei. Those countries’ claims also overlap in various areas.
The head of Vietnam’s Diplomatic Academy, Duong Van Quang, said at the opening of the conference that tensions had risen in part due to “attempts to assert legal claims over territory, in parallel with unilateral actions to strengthen control over terrain.”
Quang was referring to China’s recent establishment of a commune-level government on Woody Island, the largest of the Spratlys, which Chinese forces seized from the former South Vietnam in 1974 and which Hanoi still claims.
But international law professor Liu Nanlai (劉楠來)of China’s Academy for Social Sciences made no concessions to the Vietnamese view.
“There seems to be a misconception among many observers that China has taken islands from other countries in the Spratlys,” Liu said. “In fact, before the 1950s and [19]60s, no country other than China had made a claim in the Spratlys.”
Vietnam has recently suggested that ASEAN member states negotiate as a bloc to offset Chinese claims.
Mark Valencia of the US’ Nautilus Institute said such cooperation was unlikely, in part because China maneuvers to block it.
“All China needs to do is to peel off one [ASEAN] country and they won’t be able to move ahead as a bloc,” Valencia said. “So this will drag on indefinitely, in my view.”
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS