Philippines and Vietnam offer a model for cooperation in the South China Sea
Philippines and Vietnam offer model for cooperation in the South China Sea
WRITTEN BY JAMES BORTON AND LUCIO BLANCO PITLO III
13 July 2020
The benefits of confidence-building marine science surveys could help address rising friction in the roiling South China Sea. Indeed, recognising that access to resources has been a driver of conflict, it is possible that joint marine scientific research and conservation could renew the cooperative spirit among neighbouring states. With pressure growing on the sea’s dwindling fisheries resources, along with climate change, ocean acidification, and overfishing, these interim approaches may be welcomed by coastal states eager to ensure their food security during the COVID-19 pandemic. It may also be expedient, given the stalled Code of Conduct negotiations. However, while this may dial down tensions between claimants, it remains to be seen how this will reduce the rivalry that exists between the US and China over this strategic maritime space.
ASEAN — in a bind
The overlapping naval exercises conducted by both China and the United States over the disputed sea earlier this month is putting ASEAN countries in a bind. While they privately welcome US efforts to push back against Chinese assertiveness, they worry about the possibility a mishap could plunge the region into conflict. Given the myriad of issues where Washington and Beijing’s views diverge, the South China Sea could become a tinderbox for open great power hostilities.
Natural and human activities have taken a huge toll on the interconnected ecosystem within the South China Sea. All claimant nations are now being called upon to engage in an inclusive science-cooperation undertaking before it’s too late to save fragile coral reefs and to sustain marine life.
ASEAN knows the US-China divide is getting wider by the day and they have no illusion of acting as an arbiter in their disputes. However, by promoting confidence-building measures, the ten-member bloc may help dial-down resource-based competitive impulses among claimants and even welcome other countries to take part in a science-based conservation undertaking in the maritime commons. This mechanism, where they can have more agency, may contribute to forestalling conflict, while disputants rare to resume negotiations for an effective and substantial Code of Conduct.
The Philippines and Vietnam are well-poised to spearhead such efforts. Being frontline claimant states, both countries can leverage their regional positions to pursue this agenda. Manila is the ASEAN-China country coordinator until next year, while Hanoi is ASEAN’s Chair this year, with rumours of its desire to make a case to extend its term until next year. Both countries have been vocal in protesting China’s recent actions in the contested sea, including its establishment of new administrative entities to govern its sweeping maritime claims and its recent maritime drills. While Manila does not lay claim over the Paracels, it released a statement of solidarity with Hanoi after a Vietnamese fishing boat was sunk by a Chinese coast guard vessel off the Chinese-administered islands last April. The two Southeast Asian neighbours also issued notes verbale challenging the bases of China’s claims, maintaining that they are contrary to international law, notably UNCLOS. This attests to the growing convergence between the two forward-leaning claimants.
Science informed confidence building
A science informed confidence building activity may foster a conducive atmosphere to pursue marine conservation, a collective good shared by all regional states, without getting entangled in jurisdictional issues. While many see China as a threat in a divided sea, marine scientists understand that it’s a binding sea and a common shared natural laboratory for research. Even Chinese oceanographer, Dr Jian Lin, a marine geophysicist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, admits “that the South China Sea could be an ideal platform for promoting regional cooperation.”
This measure can frustrate unilateral ploys to use the environment card to boost one’s sovereignty or sovereign rights claims. Instead, science could promote an undertaking that does not prejudice the claims or positions of disputants. China’s annual summer fishing ban, for instance, could give way to a joint or coordinated fishing ban observed by all claimants. The convergence and duration of such an off-season could be reached through consultation with regional marine and fisheries experts. Parties could also agree on which marine species should not be collected and which fishing practices should be deemed unsustainable and thus prohibited. Even the 2016 arbitration ruling vehemently detested by Beijing offered silver linings, maintaining that Scarborough Shoal is a traditional fishing ground for Filipino, Chinese and Vietnamese fishermen. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, in November 2016, proposed declaring the shoal a marine sanctuary.
Manila and Hanoi can serve as the fulcrum for such a regional resource and science-based cooperative measure which could bring in ASEAN, China and even other countries on board. A successful precedent for such bilateral cooperation was made in 1994 when Philippine President Fidel Ramos and Vietnamese President Le Duc Anh agreed to pursue marine scientific research and environmental protection in the South China Sea. From 1996 to 2007, four joint oceanographic and marine scientific research expeditions in the sea’s southern part were held where scientists and administrators from both sides participated. The project was referred to as the Joint Oceanographic Marine Scientific Research Expedition.
One recommendation that surfaced from these joint efforts was to establish transboundary marine peace parks to preserve the sea’s marine biodiversity which was under threat. Cooperation in the creation of such marine parks would be opened to other regional and even extra-regional states. Manila and Hanoi were, in fact, able to bring in Beijing in the second phase of the joint expeditions that was purported to focus on the sea’s northern reaches. However, after completing several preparatory meetings, the plan was aborted due to failures in transparency and funding.
Precedence does exist
Another precedent for cooperative science monitoring of the troubled waters was the SCS Monsoon Experiment (SCMEX) since it also transcended regional geopolitics and territorial disputes. But for all its value and timeliness, the window for the Philippines and Vietnam to push for marine science diplomacy in the tempestuous sea is fast closing. If no extension is granted, Brunei, a more low-key claimant, will take on the mantle of ASEAN Chair from Vietnam next year. Manila will also finish its term as ASEAN-China country coordinator next year and will have elections the year after, a development which may inject further uncertainty into the country’s South China Sea policy.
For China, which plays host to this year’s UN Biodiversity Conference, it may be a chance to showcase its environmental diplomacy while enhancing ties with its neighbours. It could also be an opportunity to prove that the research stations it recently built in the disputed sea offer regional public goods.
Natural and human activities have taken a huge toll on the interconnected ecosystem within the South China Sea. All claimant nations are now being called upon to engage in an inclusive science-cooperation undertaking before it’s too late to save fragile coral reefs and to sustain marine life.
DISCLAIMER: All views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent that of the 9DASHLINE.com platform.
Author biography
James Borton is a Southeast Asia senior writer who has been reporting on the region of over two decades. He’s at work on a new book, Dispatches from the South China Sea: A Search for Common Ground.
Lucio Blanco Pitlo III is a Research Fellow at the Asia-Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation. Image credit: Jaws300/Flickr.