South China Sea Maritime Dispute Continues to Roil Region

Contested overlapping maritime offshore claims between China, Vietnam, Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei over the South China Sea continue to disrupt relations between the six nations.

China claims approximately 75 percent of the South China Sea, including the Paracel and Spratley islet groups, justifying its assertions with the region’s historical affiliations with the mainland, an assertion opposed by Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei, which have all laid claim to contested regions of the offshore waters.

The region has already seen armed conflict between the contestants, including naval encounters between China and Vietnam in 1974 and 1988, Singapore’s The Business Standard newspaper reported.

Other regional powers are slowly being sucked into the maelstrom, as last week an Indian Navy vessel was challenged by a Chinese warship off the coast of Vietnam.

Three months ago City-state Singapore’s Foreign Ministry issued a press briefing commenting, “We have repeatedly said that we think it is in China’s own interests to clarify its claims in the SCS (South China Sea) with more precision, as the current ambiguity as to their extent has caused serious concerns in the international maritime community. The recent incidents have heightened these concerns and raise serious questions in relation to the interpretation of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.”

By. Joao Peixe, Deputy Editor OilPrice.com