Is Vietnam’s restrained approach to maritime issues the key to fewer, muted confrontations with China?
- Vietnam also has the ability to isolate maritime issues from bilateral ones, analysts say, ensuring fewer confrontations compared to the Philippines
- Chinese vessels patrol near Vietnam’s oil and gas fields in the South China Sea but this hasn’t resulted in high-profile confrontations
Hanoi also has the ability to isolate maritime issues from other bilateral ones, analysts say.
Vietnamese officials he had spoken to pointed to the many positive aspects in China-Vietnam relations, in which maritime disputes constituted only “a small aspect”.
This allows Hanoi “to manage and isolate these from other bilateral relations”, according to Rahman, who added that Vietnamese officials privately informed Beijing when Chinese coastguard ships had harassed fishing vessels, for example.
“These incidents are not publicised as Vietnam prefers to deal with them privately,” Rahman said, noting that such an approach was likely to have influenced China’s approach to its maritime disputes with Vietnam, leading to fewer confrontations with Hanoi.
