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How is maritime security cooperation in the new situation
How is maritime security cooperation in the new situation
12/5/20
Maritime security is part of the national security. Therefore, ensuring maritime security is of utmost importance to facilitating sustainable marine economic development and defending the national sovereignty over seas and islands. Maritime security includes traditional security and non-traditional security. At present, the situation at sea in general, in the East Sea in particularly witnesses extremely complex developments. In addition to traditional security threats and challenges, there are non-traditional security threats and challenges which directly impact on security, safety, benefits, and peace of coastal countries, including Vietnam. It should be noted that sovereign disputes, violations of territorial waters, piracy, smuggling, trade frauds, climate change, environment pollution, and acts against international practices and law of the sea are posing the risk of instability to the sea, especially the East Sea. Hence, maritime security cooperation between Vietnam and other regional and relevant countries should be fostered to restrict, prevent, and push back the threats to maritime security, safety, and freedom in the East Sea and maintain peace and stability so that fishers could exploit marine natural resources within each country’s territorial waters.
To provide assistance for maritime security cooperation effectively, we need to develop our maritime security-related potential, improve our capability in legal struggle, modernise and make our maritime law enforcement forces, such as the Coast Guard, the Navy, and the Fisheries Resources Surveillance strong comprehensively and capable of playing the core role in ensuring maritime security, while frequently consolidating the postures of all-people national defence and people’s security at sea.Over the years, our Party and State have attached special importance to encouraging maritime security cooperation via mechanisms for bilateral and multilateral security cooperation. Vietnam has actively proposed ideas and initiatives at regional security forums, accelerated the execution of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), strictly observed international law, particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, resolutely settled disagreements in the East Sea by peaceful means, proactively encouraged relevant parties and regional countries to work towards and sign agreements on maritime security cooperation. However, to deal with complex developments of the situation in the East Sea, regional coastal countries and Vietnam should place special emphasis on adopting measures for expanding, deepening, and making maritime security cooperation more practical and effectiveness. To that end, it is necessary to focus on achieving a consensus among countries on today’s non-traditional security challenges, proactively providing and sharing information about maritime security, raising member states’ responsibility when one member’s national security and sovereignty are threatened, accelerating the negotiation process, completing and quickly putting the Code of Conduct between ASEAN and China in the East Sea into practice. Moreover, it is essential to reach an agreement on method of handling maritime security situations, particularly disputes over fishing grounds and violations of territorial waters. Due regard should be paid to enhancing joint patrols at sea, maintaining hot lines, and organising joint search and rescue exercises and smuggling and piracy combat drills.
Well implementing the above-mentioned measures will greatly contribute to maintaining political security, order, and safety in the East Sea and creating a peaceful, stable environment for regional countries and Vietnam to develop and thrive.
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All comments [ 20 ]
The diplomatic graveyard is full of failed proposals and efforts that did not take regional realities into account.
The goal of the maritime security as an additional effort, to find ways to improve understanding and adherence to the law of the sea.
Trade is the lifeblood of the global economy. Rapid economic growth in Asia over the past 30 years would have been impossible without global trade, over 90% of which is conducted by sea.
Freedom of navigation, freedom of overflight and an agreed set of global rules are therefore an essential basis for global prosperity, not just a subject of academic interest to lawyers.
In a world with over 190 countries, there need to be agreed ways of sharing access to and protecting the oceans and seas that link our countries. And when needed, there need to be ways to resolve differences of opinion.
Maritime security is just one part of the rules based international system that safeguards the interests of all.
On maritime issues, UNCLOS remains the cornerstone of the system
The multilateral approach to building a peaceful and prosperous world is under some pressure.
At this time it is particularly important that we all find ways to demonstrate that the rules-based international system can find solutions to the biggest issues we face.
Approaches based on fair and agreed rules are much better at delivering sustainable frameworks for cooperation and solving disagreements.
it should also be seen as a wider vote of confidence in the rules-based international system that has provided the basis for the prosperity that this region has enjoyed in recent times.
ASEAN member countries would probably prefer a focus on nontraditional issues with leadership and centrality provided by ASEAN.
The United States and China would of course prefer a focus on more traditional security concerns, with each wanting to provide the initiative and leadership in a coalition tacitly aimed at the other.
There are other conceptual and practical obstacles to maritime security cooperation in the South China Sea.
Some view maritime security cooperation as advantaging the more powerful, who can display the superiority of their technology, assets, and weapons and thus tacitly intimidate their potential opponents while observing and detecting the their weaknesses.
Maritime security cooperation with one side is often seen as taking a stand against the other.
Cooperation and regime-building in nontraditional security sectors will build trust and confidence and spill over into cooperation on “hard” security issues.
It now seems obvious that multilateral maritime security cooperation in the South China Sea can be successful only if the South China Sea countries collectively perceive a high priority threat and both China and the United States are willing and able to cooperate against this threat.
The cooperation between the Malacca/Singapore Straits countries — Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand — in reducing piracy in the Straits shows that this is possible.
Cooperation is somewhat restricted by differences in capacity and capability, and reticence regarding transparency, sharing of information, and operations in sensitive areas.
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