Vietnam: India has right to explore for oil
In what will be music to India’s ears and perhaps irk China, Vietnam on Thursday asserted that India has the right to pursue “exploration and exploitation work” in the South China Sea as the work was within the Vietnamese “exclusive economic zone”.
South China Sea has been a bone of contention between an increasingly assertive China and many of its immediate neighbours, including Vietnam. India too has had to face Chinese muscle-flexing over the South China Sea with Beijing having tried to stop India from drilling for oil in its off-shore oil blocks.
Vietnam’s backing for India’s right to explore in the South China Sea has come from its foreign minister, Pham Binh Minh who is currently visiting India. The Vietnamese leader was speaking after participating in the 15th joint commission meeting with external affairs minister Salman Khurshid.
The two sides also inked an agreement for a 19.5 million dollar Line of Credit that India will give to Vietnam.
According to the Vietnamese minister, both sides discussed the South and East China seas, agreeing that United Nations law on freedom of navigation in high seas need to be respected.
“Our position is that we need to respect the law of UNCLOS to solve the issues in the South China Sea peacefully,” the Vietnam minister said in a joint press conference here. He said both sides have also reaffirmed that all the countries bordering the South and East China Sea have rights to their exclusive economic zones and that India can pursue “exploration and exploitation work in the exclusive economic zone of Vietnam”.
There has been a significant expansion in India’s economic ties with Vietnam with the latter receiving substantial Indian private sector investments and growing bilateral trade. In 2012-13, bilateral trade stood at $6.1 billion.
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