SOUTH CHINA SEA DISPUTES AND ITS SETTLEMENT EFFORTS

Backgrounds

According to historical proofs, Paracel Island which is lied at 300 Km to the Southeast of China shore side had been controlled by Han Dynasty in period of 206 B.C to 220 A.D. It is also mentioned by the Director of Guangdong Province Archeology Institute, Gu Yunguan, that 98% of archeological objects found in Paracel group are trade commodities made in China.

On the other hand, Vietnam stresses that she have been controlling those Islands since 17th century. There is a historical notes mentioning that the islands, known as Hoang Sa in Vietnamese and Xisha in Chinese, was under Binh Son district, Vietnam.


There are at least three things that have put Spratly Islands at strategic stake. First of all, controlling those islands will determine the country’s border line which will provide some positive consequences to the controlling country such as a wider EEZ. Secondly, Spratly islands area is known as part of international line for both merchant ships and military vessels that will lead geostrategic position the controlling country. Lastly, there is an assumption that Spratly islands area has a big reservation of oil and natural gas.

The Rise of Tension

The escalation of the tension began rising when Vietnam’s oil exploration ship was damaged by China’s Military Vessel in May and June this year. As a reaction of this situation, Vietnam conducted a series of ‘annual military exercise’ at South China Sea on 12-13 June.

Besides with Vietnam, China also involves in tensional situation with Philippines as the latest claims that a part of South China Sea belongs to West Philippines Sea. Philippines filed a protest to the UN over China activity of which captured Philippines oil drilling vessels around that disputed waters.

Settlement Efforts

Actually, in dealing with the Spratly islands disputes, ASEAN members’ governments and China have already signed Declaration On the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea on 4 November 2002. This agreement manages all signing countries for not taking any means or activities that will worsen the disputes which include sending people to stay in the islands.

Besides that, another effort is by discussing the feasibility of joint exploration over oil and natural gas reservations in the Spratly Islands area. This idea was tried by China and Philippines in 2003 by proposing it at the Asian Association of parliaments for Peace (AAPP) conference in Philippines. The claiming countries signed the paper afterwards.

Conversely, China wants to solve this problem bilaterally. She prefers to discuss it bilaterally with the claiming countries. It is assumed that China tries to avoid facing ASEAN as a whole should the negotiation done multilaterally.

After 20 years conducting annual meeting, this effort is interrupted by provocative activities done by China, Philippines and Vietnam. To reduce the tension, as ASEAN Summit 2011 is coming, Indonesia held ASEAN Senior Officer Meeting (ASOM) on 7-11 June in Surabaya. It was attended by senior official from ASEAN members’ governments and dialogue partner countries discussing the implementation of DOC.

Indonesia Perspectives

Another proactive mean done by Indonesia is indicated at the Meeting of States parties to the UNCLOS. Indonesia, together with Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, and Singapore reached an agreement of which the South China Sea disputes should be done peacefully and based on UNCLOS.

Despite any diplomacy efforts, incidents between China and Vietnam still happened. Our president as the Head of ASEAN urged ASEAN Foreign Affairs Minister to fasten the process of the declaration on the handling of South China Sea region.

In his opening remarks at the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on 16-23 July 2011 in Bali, President Yudhoyono suggested that the first declaration on the issues of South China Sea was in 1992. It took 10 years for China to accept the declaration. In addition to that, during 9 periods after the acceptance, the conflicting countries still did not find any acceptable standard form to dealing with the issues. According to the President, ASEAN needs to send a positive signal and optimism to the world that this issue, in the future, will be handled and predictable.

China and all conflicting countries that claim the disputed area in South China Sea, at last, has signed the DOC on 23 July 2011. By signing this declaration, it is strongly hope that it will reduce the conflict. By the presence of DOC, it is urged that all conflicting countries cannot take any improper means within disputed area. What both can and can not be done explicitly written in DOC.

To assuring the maritime security stability at Natuna sea that adjacent to South China Sea as a strategic lane, TNI conducts daily patrols, establishes naval bases and stations, deploys personnel to border security station, and develops cooperation with Vietnam People’s Army (VPA) and planning to conduct coordinated patrol; now it is still in process of drafting the agreement.

By. Rolly