By Ian Timberlake
AFP
17 December 2009
HANOI — Vietnam's major arms deal with Russia, reported to involve
the purchase of six submarines, aims to bolster claims against China
over potentially resource-rich islands in the South China Sea, analysts
say.
While much of Vietnam's military hardware is antiquated, it
has decided to devote substantial resources to developing an underwater
fleet as concerns mount over tensions with its giant neighbour over the
Paracel and Spratly archipelagos, they say.
"I think their
primary rationale is to counteract the military build-up that the
Chinese have had in the South China Sea," said Richard Bitzinger, a
regional defence analyst with the S. Rajaratnam School of International
Studies in Singapore.
Vietnam and Russia signed the long-planned deal on Tuesday during a visit by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to Moscow.
Details
were not released but Russia's Interfax news agency reported that
Vietnam had agreed to buy six Kilo-class diesel-electric submarines for
about two billion dollars.
Vietnam's move is not surprising
"given the concerns they have about the maritime environment,
particularly in the South China Sea," said Peter Abigail, director of
the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
In the latest
incident, Vietnam on Tuesday delivered a diplomatic note to the Chinese
embassy in Hanoi demanding China return two fishing boats and equipment
seized from Vietnamese fishermen in waters around the Paracels.
Vietnam
has previously reported similar cases, and fishermen earlier this year
said they were seeing an increasing number of armed Chinese patrol
ships in disputed waters.
Taiwan also claims the Paracels --
which China occupies -- while the Spratlys are claimed in full or part
by China and Vietnam as well as the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and
Taiwan.
The sovereignty row has gone on for years. In 1988
Vietnam and China fought a brief naval battle near one of the Spratly
reefs. More than 50 Vietnamese sailors died.
Two years ago a Chinese naval vessel fired at a Vietnamese fishing boat near the Spratlys, killing one sailor, reports said.
The archipelagos are considered strategic outposts with potentially vast oil and gas reserves, and rich fishing grounds.
Last
week, Lieutenant General Nguyen Chi Vinh, Vietnam's deputy minister of
defence, called the maritime tensions "a matter of concern".
That
was the most forthright assessment yet by a Vietnamese defence official
on the issue, said Carl Thayer, a Vietnam specialist with the
Australian Defence Force Academy.
Vinh said the issue would not
lead to conflict because international law provides a basis for a
resolution, and Vietnam's policy is to ensure a peaceful outcome.
But
Vietnam, with a long coastline and offshore oil potential, has faced a
"strategic vulnerability" which it is now trying to address, Thayer
said.
In Moscow, Dung confirmed only that the arms deal included submarines along with aircraft and "military equipment".
The
aircraft order involved 12 Sukhoi Su-30MK2 warplanes worth more than
500 million dollars, Russia's Vedomosti newspaper reported earlier this
year.
The fighters are among the world's most advanced and could
provide air cover for the surface fleet, which Vietnam is seeking to
enhance with new patrol craft, analysts say.
"What they're mostly trying to do is beef up their presence," Bitzinger said.
Vietnam's submarines will help to at least give it a capability of defending its maritime interests, Thayer said.
China's modernising military has prompted concern in the United States.
Defence Secretary Robert Gates said US military power in the Pacific
could be undermined, and a Pentagon report said China's weaponry and
aircraft could enable it to carry out extended operations into the
South China Sea.
While Vietnam's prime minister was signing the
deal with Russia on Tuesday, his defence minister was on a rare visit
to Washington where he held talks with Gates.
A Chinese embassy
official in Hanoi, when asked to comment on the submarine deal, said
Vietnam, Russia, and other countries in the area "must think about
peace, and peace in the South China Sea."
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"...must think about peace, and peace in the South China Sea."
Hah! Peace in the Chinese's baby cry style!
Peace in actions globally like the Cambodia's killing fields, the Darfur genocide, the 1979 brutal war with Vietnam, non-stop snatching neighbors' territories... Peace in spending billions in push-people-away military while millions of Chinese living in distress and poverty.
Hah! Peace in the Chinese's baby cry style!