South China Sea agreement should be binding: Vietnamese envoy

China-U.S. confrontation has made the situation more “complex and unpredictable”, he says

The China-U.S. confrontation has made the situation in the South China Sea (SCS) more “complex and unpredictable,” said Vietnamese envoy in India Pham Sanh Chau on Friday, speaking at a discussion organised by the Society for Indian Ocean Studies. Calling the Code of Conduct for the SCS under negotiation between the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China as the most positive development, Mr. Chau said it should be binding.

“China and ASEAN are negotiating the draft [CoC]. Our objective is to have the CoC binding. If it is not binding we don’t see a point for negotiation… I cannot reveal to you the substantive development concerning the negotiations because it is under way. But I can share with you that there is progress,” Mr. Chau said calling it a progression on the Declaration on the Conduct (DoC) of Parties signed in 2002.

He was speaking at a discussion organised by the Society for Indian Ocean Studies to mark three years of the verdict by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) on the SCS in favour of the Philippines but was rejected by China which had called it “null and void”.

“The DoC is very positive but is not binding,” Mr. Chau said stressing on the need for a CoC which is “binding, efficient and substantial in accordance with international law including UN charter and United Nations Conventions on the Laws of the Seas (UNCLOS).”

The envoy said countries in the region were not only worried by the ongoing illegal land reclamation, illegal fishing activities and threat to fishermen but also by the growing intensity of the confrontation between the “two major powers, China and the U.S. and their allies”. But the situation was under control, he said.

In January 22, 2013, the Philippines had instituted an arbitration proceeding against China in the PCA under UNCLOS and on July 12, 2016 the PCA awarded the judgment.

China claims most of the SCS up to the nine-dash line and the resource region has seen several confrontations over the years. On the PCA ruling, Chinese President Xi Jinping said China’s “national sovereignty and marine rights and interests in the South China Sea will not be affected in any way by the ruling and the case brought about by the Philippines”.

The DoC says both sides will “enhance favourable conditions for a peaceful and durable solution of differences and disputes among the countries concerned”. But it is non-binding and China has undertaken massive reclamation in the region and aggressive tactics on the seas to assert its claims. At the end of last year, all parties agreed to finalise the CoC within three years starting from 2019.