Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has just voiced their rejection of information that they consider “false” from China about Vietnam’s construction of an armed maritime militia with the risk of causing conflict, according to the state-controlled media.
The China Daily newspaper of the Communist Party of China recently wrote that Vietnam, over the past decade, has used “enormous” resources and material to develop its maritime militia and warned about the possibility of confrontations in the South China Sea from this “armed” force.
Responding to this information, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said that “Vietnam completely rejects the information” and considers it “untrue,” according to Tuoi Tre newspaper.
According to China’s largest English-language newspaper, Vietnam’s maritime militia serves as the eye of the Vietnamese navy and coast guard and even engages in maritime confrontations when “not only suppressing Chinese fishing vessels but also directly threatens the operation and navigational safety of Chinese fishing and law enforcement vessels.”
The Chinese newspaper also said that fishermen from China, Malaysia, and Indonesia “have been robbed and threatened by foreign fishing boats in the South China Sea in recent years” and that according to the fishermen’s description, the country, these fishing boats are “armed” and most likely “of the Vietnamese maritime militia.”
China Daily mentions that the National Assembly of Vietnam in November 2009 passed the “Law on Militia and Self-Defense“, according to which Vietnamese fishing boats must be accompanied by a group of militiamen when fishing at sea. The Chinese newspaper said that this marked the official formation of Vietnam’s maritime militia and self-defense force.
With a growing territorial dispute with China, Vietnam, although it denies building a maritime militia, has put forward plans to expand its fishing fleet to protect its sovereignty with a resolution approved by the National Assembly. The Party Central Committee approved it in 2018.
Nikkei Asia last June also reported that Vietnam had taken a new step in increasing its maritime presence amid heightened territorial tensions in the South China Sea by establishing a militia squadron in Kien Giang Province.
Meanwhile, China Daily mentioned the Shipyard of Song Thu Group in Da Nang and said that Vietnam is building massive ships for the maritime militia, “arousing the attention of neighboring countries as well as the international community.”
A Chinese military magazine last April also said that Vietnam was building up a maritime militia and self-defense force to “challenge China’s efforts in dominating the disputed waterway.”
The European Union estimates that about 8,000 fishing boats and 46,000 fishermen are part of Vietnam’s maritime militia. Meanwhile, statistics from a research organization in China last year estimated that the number of fishermen in Vietnam’s maritime militia could be up to 70,000.
The spokesman of Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on January 21 said that Vietnam “persists in its policy of peaceful defense and self-defense” and affirmed that “activities of Vietnamese functional forces absolutely comply with the Vietnamese law, international law, especially the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) 1982,” according to Thanh Nien newspaper.
Hang called for “countries inside and outside the region to contribute responsibly to this goal,” according to the Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
