Beijing, Hanoi set up hotline, sign oil deal during visit by Viet president

Anti-China demonstrators in Hanoi. Photo: Reuters

Leaders agree on measures to defuse tensions over territorial disputes in the South China Sea

The presidents of China and Vietnam set up a hotline to defuse territorial disputes and expanded a 2006 agreement to jointly explore for oil in the Gulf of Tonkin.

Vietnam Oil and Gas Group’s agreement with China National Offshore Oil Corp, announced during President Truong Tan Sang’s visit to Beijing, expands the exploration area to 4,000 square kilometres and extends the plan to 2016, the Vietnamese government said. The nations’ agriculture ministers also signed a pact to set up the hotline.

The agreement and hotline aim to calm tensions after disputes in the waters strained ties between the neighbours and sparked protests in Hanoi. Sang is seeking to spur an economy that grew at the slowest pace in 13 years and narrow China’s trade surplus, which hit US$11 billion from January to May.

“It seems China and Vietnam are bending over backwards to make this positive,” Australian Defence Force Academy emeritus professor Carlyle Thayer said. “There are some significant issues – the trading debt Vietnam has and illegal Chinese workers.”

“Of course it is desirable for China to set up fishing hotlines with other countries if such agreements can be reached, but the problem is it’s even more difficult to sit down for negotiations with countries like the Philippines,” said Li Jinming of the Institute for South China Sea Studies at Xiamen University.

Sang met President Xi Jinping on Wednesday. In remarks carried by Xinhua, Xi said the countries should seek a political solution and not let the issue affect bilateral ties.

Competition for fish, gas and oil has intensified between China and other Asian countries, with Vietnam and the Philippines rejecting China’s maritime claims as a basis for joint development of oil and gas reserves in areas south of the Gulf of Tonkin.

Bloomberg, Associated Press
Source: SCMP “Beijing, Hanoi set up hotline, sign oil deal during visit by Viet president”

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