Solution still far on Spratlys

Solution still far on Spratlys

BUKITTINGGI, West Sumatra (JP): An end to the decades-long
disputes over the Spratly and Paracel Islands in the South China
Sea remains a remote hope requiring great patience and effort to
bring about.

An expert predicted yesterday that a long road lay ahead
because the concerned parties are only now beginning to learn to
cooperate among each other.

"There are so many factors involved in the issue, especially
when it comes to the issue of confidence building measures,"
Hasjim Djalal, a resource person at the fifth workshop on
managing potential conflicts in the South China Sea, said here
yesterday.

Speaking at a press conference after the closing of the five-
day workshop, he pointed out that disagreements still linger as
to whether the issue of the Spratlys and Paracels should be
incorporated and resolved in the workshop, or whether it should
be broadened to cover a wider scope of "territorial disputes and
claims".

"In the previous workshops, the disputes and claims over the
Spratlys and Paracels were clearly included in the talks, but now
some participants want to drop the issue, while others are
fighting to keep it in," he said.

Thus, up to the end of the workshop, no consensus had been
reached as to whether the issue would be limited to the two
archipelagos.

Hasjim, who is also Indonesia's Ambassador-at-Large for Law
of the Sea, explained that disagreements lingered not only in
defining the area of the dispute, but also on the first topic of
the Confidence Building Measures, which involve the non-expansion
of the existing military presence in the region.

He explained that while the majority of participants supported
the need of non-expansion of the existing military presence and
agreed to its significance, some had difficulty in expressing
their views, and others believed it was unnecessary to adopt any
of these measures for the time being.

"One of the reasons there are so many problems in the South
China Sea is that the participants have no experience in
cooperating. Their past experiences with each other are all
confrontations," Hasjim pointed out.

This is unlike the case of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations, which have some 27 years of experience in cooperating.
(pwn)