KV Prasad
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 21

Raising tension in South China Sea, China has stationed two Coast Guard ships near the ONGC Videsh oil exploration block off the Vietnam coast, besides increasing military activities, including conducting sorties.

Diplomatic sources of Vietnam said here that personnel from these two ships were using loudspeakers asking halting of work on the 0.61 block, where ONGC Videsh works in a joint venture with Russian Rosneft and Vietnam companies.

India is associated with exploration work here for the past 17 years and in the past too Beijing protested commercial oil exploration activity.

Concerned over the presence of some 20 vessels, including eight coast guard ships, 10 fishing boats and two service ships in the area, sources said China returned to the area recently after staying put for 33 days from July 3.

Hanoi says the area where Beijing is moving around fall in Exclusive Economic Zone, a claim disputed by Beijing.

To prevent China from extending claim, Hanoi decided to increase diplomatic pressure amid indication that the issue could be taken to the UNSC. “There is a suggestion that we follow the same China-Pakistan model at UNSC, if Pakistan can take bilateral issue to UNSC, South China Sea is still an international issue,” the sources said.

Vietnam sources said while intention of China was to force Vietnam to draft it as a partner in exploration, they were not certain whether the idea of moving coast guard ships close to the Indian block is linked to New Delhi’s move in J&K.