Vietnamese Position Regarding China’s South China Sea Policy of “Set Aside Dispute and Pursue Joint Development”

Windy Thi Ngoc Minh Phan

2018

Abstract

The joint development model has been implemented for a long time in the world, for example, the Svalbard Treaty of 19 December 1920. Since the treaty was born, so far, in the world, more than 100 joint development agreements have been signed and implemented. Paragraph 3 of Article 74 of The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982 stipulate that “Pending agreement, the States concerned, in a spirit of understanding and cooperation, shall make every effort to enter into provisional arrangements of a practical nature and, during this transitional period, not to jeopardize or hamper the reaching of the final agreement. Such arrangements shall be without prejudice to the final delimitation.” It is an important legal basis for the formation of joint development agreements between countries. Joint Development has the same meaning as the "dilution" and "softening" of conflicts and tensions between the countries concerned. Joint development is, in fact, an appropriate solution that can be applied to the provisional settlement of disputes in the South China Sea area and is currently under discussion by the parties. Mutual awareness has opened the prospect and favorable conditions for conducting joint development cooperation activities in the region. Negotiations on specific issues for the implementation of this option as one of the possible solutions to conflicts that need to be considered include Vietnam. However, it should be noted that around the issue of joint development in the South China Sea, the point of view of China is different from that of other countries. China was the first country to propose joint development in the Spratly Islands area formally, and so far, seems to follow a policy of “Set aside dispute and pursue joint development” to solve the Spratly problem. What is interesting in this view is the general premise “sovereignty belongs to China.” Vietnam and some other disputants cannot accept this standpoint. What do Vietnam government need to do in implementing the joint development agreement in the South China Sea while maintaining the sovereignty of the parties to the dispute? This article puts forward some solutions for Vietnam in solving this problem. To implement the joint development solution in the South China Sea, the first thing that Viet Nam must mention is the issue of sovereignty of Vietnam. Vietnam will only implement joint development if China respects Vietnam’s sovereignty over the Paracel Islands and the Spratly Islands as well as its sovereign rights and jurisdiction over the exclusive economic zone-EEZ and continental shelf adhered to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Phan W. (2018). Vietnamese Position Regarding China’s South China Sea Policy of “Set Aside Dispute and Pursue Joint Development”. In Proceedings of Airlangga Conference on International Relations - Volume 1: ACIR, ISBN 978-989-758-493-0, pages 200-210. DOI: 10.5220/0010275100002309

in Bibtex Style

@conference{acir18,
author={Windy Thi Ngoc Minh Phan},
title={Vietnamese Position Regarding China’s South China Sea Policy of “Set Aside Dispute and Pursue Joint Development”},
booktitle={Proceedings of Airlangga Conference on International Relations - Volume 1: ACIR,},
year={2018},
pages={200-210},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0010275100002309},
isbn={978-989-758-493-0},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of Airlangga Conference on International Relations - Volume 1: ACIR,
TI - Vietnamese Position Regarding China’s South China Sea Policy of “Set Aside Dispute and Pursue Joint Development”
SN - 978-989-758-493-0
AU - Phan W.
PY - 2018
SP - 200
EP - 210
DO - 10.5220/0010275100002309