Hanoi turns up the heat in oil row with China
Hanoi turns up the heat in oil row with China
HANOI (Reuter): Vietnam's communist government turned up the heat in a territorial and oil exploration row with its giant northern neighbor yesterday, accusing China of violating international laws and calling for urgent talks.
Amid signs of growing official frustration, a foreign ministry spokesman in Hanoi said China's decision to position an oil rig off Vietnam's central coast in early March could not be left to routine border discussion channels.
He said Vietnam was calling therefore for an immediate and unconditional meeting.
"We request an expert-level meeting at the soonest moment without preconditions to discuss the issue," the spokesman said, reading from a prepared statement.
"Using this opportunity, we would like to add that the location (of the drilling rig) is not in the Tonkin Gulf area," he said, indicating that in Hanoi's view the matter fell outside existing channels for discussing routine border issues.
The official Vietnam News Agency quoted a prominent lawyer earlier as saying latest reports showed the Chinese vessels were located 55 nautical miles off the nearest point of Vietnam's base line and 71 miles off China's Hainan Island.
"The rig is definitely inside Vietnam's exclusive economic zone and continental shelf," VNA quoted the lawyer, Luu Van Loi, as saying.
He added that China's action placed it in violation of its obligations under a 1982 UN Convention on Sea Law and called for the immediate withdrawal of the rig and supporting vessels.
The dispute erupted earlier this month when Hanoi announced it had protested to China over the positioning of the Kan Tan 111 exploration rig some 64.5 nautical miles off mainland central Vietnam.
Beijing responded that the rig was in Chinese waters off Hainan Island and that its activities were above reproach.
Vietnam in turn has counter-responded by seeking diplomatic support from fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and using megaphone diplomacy, apparently as a means of increasing pressure on China for early negotiations.
But a senior official with state oil firm Petrovietnam indicated growing frustration with the matter yesterday and said Hanoi would not consider a solution that involved a production- sharing agreement with Beijing.
"Vietnam would never sign a contract on production-sharing with China on its continental shelf," Petrovietnam information center director Vu Van Mao told reporters at an oil and gas conference in Ho Chi Minh City.
"If someone came to your country and drilled, and then asked you to sign a contract, would you?"
Mao added there could be no comparison made with overlapping maritime areas off Vietnam's southern coast, where sharing deals have been set up with neighboring countries.
Vietnamese analysts contacted by Reuters yesterday indicated similar frustration and said Beijing's outward silence over the issue in recent days reflected the weakness of its claim to the disputed area.