Tensions Build as Vietnam Hosts US Navy

By The Associated Press 23 April 2012

HANOI, Vietnam—Vietnam kicked off a week-long naval exchange on Monday with the US Navy amid percolating tensions with Beijing in the South China Sea.

Three ships from the US 7th Fleet visited Da Nang during the five-day event that began on Monday. No live-fire drills were planned, but the two sides were expected to practice salvage and disaster training as they have done in recent years.

Vietnam, China, the Philippines and other nations have competing claims to islands in the South China Sea, which is believed rich in oil and gas deposits. Many view the sea as a potential flash point of armed conflict.

Tensions have flared this month near a shoal north of the disputed Spratly Islands where two Chinese maritime surveillance ships blocked a Philippine warship from arresting Chinese fishermen on April 10. Chinese and Philippine vessels continued to face off at the shoal on Monday, each waiting for the other to pull out.

Earlier this month, five Vietnamese Buddhist monks traveled to the Spratlys to teach Buddhism and defend their nation’s territorial claim.

Tensions between Vietnam and China hit a low point last summer after Hanoi accused Beijing of interfering with its maritime oil exploration activities. Beijing denied the charge.

The last major clash in the sea involved China and Vietnam and left more than 70 Vietnamese sailors dead in 1988.

Beijing has named the South China Sea one of its “core interests,” meaning it could potentially go to war to protect it. The US has said it has a national interest in ensuring freedom of navigation in the sea, and analysts say Washington is expanding its military presence in Asia to counter China’s rising influence.

Meanwhile, an international think tank says China’s deployment of more surveillance and paramilitary ships to assert ambiguous territorial claims in the South China Sea could set off more confrontations there.

The International Crisis Group says nearly a dozen Chinese maritime surveillance and fisheries agencies are dealing with China’s claims in the sea. Their competition for budget and power results in “conflicting mandates and lack of coordination.”

The group’s report was released on Monday.

China has deployed bigger patrol ships that have figured in major flare-ups, including an ongoing standoff with a Philippine coast guard vessel over the disputed Scarborough Shoal.