With an eye on China, Russia seeks closer naval ties with Vietnam

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and his Vietnamese counterpart Phung Quang Thanh

 

 

 

Russia is looking to step up naval cooperation with Vietnam in the latter’s strategic Cam Ranh Bay in the East Sea though Vietnam is downplaying it, calling the cooperation “normal.”
Asked whether recent bilateral talks on naval cooperation convey a message about the sovereignty dispute in the East Sea, Minister of Defense Phung Quang Thanh said: “It is a normal issue. Other countries [also] want to cooperate with the Vietnamese Navy.”
He was speaking at a press conference Tuesday following a visit by his Russian counterpart General Sergei Shoigu on March 4-5.
Cam Ranh Port in central Vietnam was used by the US military during the Vietnam War which ended in 1975.
After the war, Vietnam and the then Soviet Union signed an agreement in 1979 that allowed the latter to use Cam Ranh as a base until Russia withdrew its forces in 2002.

Cam Ranh Bay is about 13 kilometers from the open sea with waters 18-30 meters deep. The estuary is three kilometers wide and 20 meters deep, making it capable of receiving ships of more than 100,000 DWT.
It is strategically located near key shipping lanes in the East Sea, internationally known as the South China Sea, and is close to the strategically important and oil-rich Truong Sa (Spratly) and Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelagoes.
At the press conference, Shoigu underlined the importance of Russia’s naval cooperation with Vietnam and promised to support Vietnam with personnel training and technology transfer once Russia delivers naval vessels.
Last August Russia’s Admiralteiskie Verfi shipyard completed the first of six Kilo-class diesel-electric submarines ordered by Vietnam.Shoigu told Thanh at the meeting that Vietnam should approve construction of a five-star resort for Russian soldiers near Cam Ranh Airport. A fifth of the foreign-invested resort’s capacity will be earmarked for Vietnamese soldiers.


The Vietnamese Navy-owned Tan Cang Company would build a commercial repair facility at Cam Ranh Bay, Thanh said. Vietsovpetro, a joint venture between Russia's Zarubezhneft Company and PetroVietnam, would take a stake in the project that is expected to take two or three years, he said. The facility would come up in the bay and serve commercial purposes, he said. Cam Ranh would have three ports – one for the Vietnamese Navy, the repair facility serving ships from all countries, and the civilian Ba Ngoi Port – he said.
“As you know, Japan, France, the US, and the former Soviet Union had bases here,” he said at the press conference. 
 
“Thus the Russians know well about the strategic position of Cam Ranh Bay.
“It’s a deep water port located near international shipping lines, and is a good place to have technical services.”
Vietnam would simplify procedures for Russian ships using the services, he promised.
Carlyle Thayer, a Vietnam expert with the University of New South Wales in Australia, said bilateral discussions to step up naval cooperation were in line with what was agreed in the past few years.
“In 2010 Vietnam asked Russia to assist in upgrading the naval facilities at Cam Ranh Bay mainly in order to service the Kilo submarines when they are delivered.
“Top Vietnamese officials noted that Russia would be accorded special treatment because of its status as a strategic partner.
“In July 2012 the bilateral relationship was raised to a comprehensive strategic partnership in part due to closer defense cooperation through increase military sales.”
There was no possibility that the Russians would be permitted to set up a base at Cam Ranh Bay, he said.

China warns Vietnam over South China Sea islands

Beijing: Deploying its maritime vessels for patrolling in the disputed South China Sea, China has asked Vietnam not to implement its new maritime law, affirming sovereignty over the contested islands and cautioned Hanoi that the move would escalate bilateral tensions.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunyang in a statement here urged Vietnam to refrain from taking any actions that complicate and escalate issues between the two countries, as the Vietnamese maritime law came into effective from yesterday.

Hua stressed China has indisputable sovereignty over the islands called by China Xisha and Nansha Islands and Paracel islands by Vietnam. 


"Any claim raised by any other country and any action taken by any other nation to territorial sovereignty over the islands and waters are illegal and invalid," Hua said, adding China is deeply concerned about the negative impact of the implementation of the law.

In June, the Vietnam National Assembly passed the "Vietnamese Law of the Sea," describing the Islands as being within Vietnam's sovereignty and jurisdiction.

Consequently Vietnam had set up a fishery bureau with powers to maritime patrol, check the ships of other countries and investigate any violations.

To counter Hanoi's move China's Hainan Province passed a regulation related to ocean security, affirming China's stand to protect its maritime security.

Under this, several measures can be taken against foreign ships that illegally enter China's territory.

In November last year, the local legislature of China's Hainan authorised provincial border police to board or seize foreign ships that illegally enter the province's waters and order them to change course or stop sailing from January 1.

Yesterday, Chinese state-run Xinhua news agency reported China's marine surveillance ships began patrolling the South China Sea implementing the order authorising its border Police to board and search ships entering the area considered as its territorial waters.

China's State Oceanic Administration said its vessels Haijian 75 and Haijian 84, aided by the surveillance aircraft B-3843 patrolled waters near the Beibu Gulf of the South China Sea, where Vietnam recently complained of harassment of Chinese vessels obstructing its survey ship. China virtually claims ownership to the entire South China Sea.

Besides Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have disputes with China over the disputed islands in the South China Sea as well as the extent of territorial waters. The Philippines and Vietnam have raised objections over the maps printed in China's e-passports claiming the sovereignty over the disputed areas.  

Vietnam Air Force new Su-30MK2 camouflage scheme

Vietnam: Launch of the website of the Ministry of Defence

The portal of the Vietnamese Ministry of Defence (Vietnamese Ministry of Defense Portal - VMDP) was launched on Thursday in Hanoi at: www.mod.gov.vn .

Present at the launching ceremony of the Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan and General Do Ba Ty, Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People's Army and Deputy Minister of Defense.

This website will provide official information from the Ministry in Vietnamese and English public services involved.

It will allow people to other departments and their branches to learn about the department's activities as well as international friends to learn about Vietnam, his country and his defense, said Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan.

Arms race explodes as neighbours Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Phillipines try to counter China

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/arms-race-explodes-as-neighbours-try-to-counter-china-20121118-29k4m.html#ixzz2Cg2XecEj

PHNOM PENH: An arms-buying spree across south-east Asia will be the elephant in the room when almost 20 world leaders meet in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, on Tuesday.
Defence spending across the region increased 13.5 per cent to $US25.4 billion ($24.5 billion) last year and was expected to rise to $US40 billion by 2016, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said.
Flush with economic success and wary of China's military expansion, countries are acquiring sophisticated sea- and air-based arsenals that include dozens of submarines that can operate in secret.
The institute said Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia had increased defence budgets by 66 per cent to 82 per cent from 2002 to last year.

Advertisement

Indonesia was buying submarines from South Korea and coastal radar systems from China and the US, Vietnam was getting submarines and combat jets from Russia and had acquired Israeli ballistic missiles, defence analysts said.
Vietnam's defence budget for this year is $US3.1 billion, a rise of 35 per cent over last year. The Philippines has a huge wish-list of equipment it wants from the US and is also approaching Japan, South Korea, France and Britain for defence acquisitions.
Singapore, already the fifth-largest weapons importing nation, looked like keeping its title as the region's biggest spender, allocating $US9.7 billion this year on defence, 24 per cent of its national budget. The city-state's purchases included combat jets from the US and submarines from Sweden.
Thailand was planning to buy submarines and warplanes from Sweden that would eventually be fitted with anti-ship missiles, while arms deliveries to Malaysia jumped eightfold over the five years to 2009.
For decades, much of south-east Asia spent little on weapons except guns and tanks to respond to internal threats. But they are now building their defence capabilities amid tensions over territorial claims in the South China Sea and other squabbles that underscore the role of the East Asia Summit.
Leaders attending include the US President, Barack Obama, the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, and the Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard.
Defence officials estimated 86 submarines would be added to regional fleets by 2020, 30 of which would belong to China, which already had the most.
Some Chinese nuclear submarines were expected to carry 12 sea-launched ballistic missiles and could eventually be equipped with multiple warheads.
A south-east Asia analyst from the Australian Defence Force Academy at the University of NSW, Carl Thayer, said the ''deployment of nuclear submarines, including ballistic missile submarines, will introduce a new geostrategic dimension to the regional balance of power''.
Professor Thayer said Chinese nuclear submarine deployments would attract continuing attention from the US Navy. He warned the arms buying spree could have a destabilising impact on regional security.
In a paper delivered in Vietnam at the weekend, Professor Thayer says ''south-east Asia is ripe for rivalry - but not armed conflict - due to the strategic mistrust between a rising and increasingly militarily powerful China and a US committed to maintaining the present balance of power''.
Senior US officials said Mr Obama's trip to Cambodia, the first by a US president, would reinforce the ''pivot'' of US security forces to Asia and the Pacific. The strategy is seen as a counterweight to China, which is aggressively asserting its claim to almost all the South China Sea. Parts of the area are also claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam.
In his paper, Professor Thayer says the ''most disturbing'' trend in defence spending is China's growing reliance on citizen fishing fleets and paramilitary forces gathering in a disputed area to assert Chinese jurisdiction.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/arms-race-explodes-as-neighbours-try-to-counter-china-20121118-29k4m.html#ixzz2Cg2XecEj

PHNOM PENH: An arms-buying spree across south-east Asia will be the elephant in the room when almost 20 world leaders meet in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, on Tuesday.
Defence spending across the region increased 13.5 per cent to $US25.4 billion ($24.5 billion) last year and was expected to rise to $US40 billion by 2016, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said.
Flush with economic success and wary of China's military expansion, countries are acquiring sophisticated sea- and air-based arsenals that include dozens of submarines that can operate in secret.
The institute said Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia had increased defence budgets by 66 per cent to 82 per cent from 2002 to last year.

Advertisement

Indonesia was buying submarines from South Korea and coastal radar systems from China and the US, Vietnam was getting submarines and combat jets from Russia and had acquired Israeli ballistic missiles, defence analysts said.
Vietnam's defence budget for this year is $US3.1 billion, a rise of 35 per cent over last year. The Philippines has a huge wish-list of equipment it wants from the US and is also approaching Japan, South Korea, France and Britain for defence acquisitions.
Singapore, already the fifth-largest weapons importing nation, looked like keeping its title as the region's biggest spender, allocating $US9.7 billion this year on defence, 24 per cent of its national budget. The city-state's purchases included combat jets from the US and submarines from Sweden.
Thailand was planning to buy submarines and warplanes from Sweden that would eventually be fitted with anti-ship missiles, while arms deliveries to Malaysia jumped eightfold over the five years to 2009.
For decades, much of south-east Asia spent little on weapons except guns and tanks to respond to internal threats. But they are now building their defence capabilities amid tensions over territorial claims in the South China Sea and other squabbles that underscore the role of the East Asia Summit.
Leaders attending include the US President, Barack Obama, the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, and the Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard.
Defence officials estimated 86 submarines would be added to regional fleets by 2020, 30 of which would belong to China, which already had the most.
Some Chinese nuclear submarines were expected to carry 12 sea-launched ballistic missiles and could eventually be equipped with multiple warheads.
A south-east Asia analyst from the Australian Defence Force Academy at the University of NSW, Carl Thayer, said the ''deployment of nuclear submarines, including ballistic missile submarines, will introduce a new geostrategic dimension to the regional balance of power''.
Professor Thayer said Chinese nuclear submarine deployments would attract continuing attention from the US Navy. He warned the arms buying spree could have a destabilising impact on regional security.
In a paper delivered in Vietnam at the weekend, Professor Thayer says ''south-east Asia is ripe for rivalry - but not armed conflict - due to the strategic mistrust between a rising and increasingly militarily powerful China and a US committed to maintaining the present balance of power''.
Senior US officials said Mr Obama's trip to Cambodia, the first by a US president, would reinforce the ''pivot'' of US security forces to Asia and the Pacific. The strategy is seen as a counterweight to China, which is aggressively asserting its claim to almost all the South China Sea. Parts of the area are also claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam.
In his paper, Professor Thayer says the ''most disturbing'' trend in defence spending is China's growing reliance on citizen fishing fleets and paramilitary forces gathering in a disputed area to assert Chinese jurisdiction.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/arms-race-explodes-as-neighbours-try-to-counter-china-20121118-29k4m.html#ixzz2Cg2XecEj

PHNOM PENH: An arms-buying spree across south-east Asia will be the elephant in the room when almost 20 world leaders meet in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, on Tuesday.
Defence spending across the region increased 13.5 per cent to $US25.4 billion ($24.5 billion) last year and was expected to rise to $US40 billion by 2016, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said.
Flush with economic success and wary of China's military expansion, countries are acquiring sophisticated sea- and air-based arsenals that include dozens of submarines that can operate in secret.
The institute said Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia had increased defence budgets by 66 per cent to 82 per cent from 2002 to last year.

Advertisement

Indonesia was buying submarines from South Korea and coastal radar systems from China and the US, Vietnam was getting submarines and combat jets from Russia and had acquired Israeli ballistic missiles, defence analysts said.
Vietnam's defence budget for this year is $US3.1 billion, a rise of 35 per cent over last year. The Philippines has a huge wish-list of equipment it wants from the US and is also approaching Japan, South Korea, France and Britain for defence acquisitions.
Singapore, already the fifth-largest weapons importing nation, looked like keeping its title as the region's biggest spender, allocating $US9.7 billion this year on defence, 24 per cent of its national budget. The city-state's purchases included combat jets from the US and submarines from Sweden.
Thailand was planning to buy submarines and warplanes from Sweden that would eventually be fitted with anti-ship missiles, while arms deliveries to Malaysia jumped eightfold over the five years to 2009.
For decades, much of south-east Asia spent little on weapons except guns and tanks to respond to internal threats. But they are now building their defence capabilities amid tensions over territorial claims in the South China Sea and other squabbles that underscore the role of the East Asia Summit.
Leaders attending include the US President, Barack Obama, the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, and the Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard.
Defence officials estimated 86 submarines would be added to regional fleets by 2020, 30 of which would belong to China, which already had the most.
Some Chinese nuclear submarines were expected to carry 12 sea-launched ballistic missiles and could eventually be equipped with multiple warheads.
A south-east Asia analyst from the Australian Defence Force Academy at the University of NSW, Carl Thayer, said the ''deployment of nuclear submarines, including ballistic missile submarines, will introduce a new geostrategic dimension to the regional balance of power''.
Professor Thayer said Chinese nuclear submarine deployments would attract continuing attention from the US Navy. He warned the arms buying spree could have a destabilising impact on regional security.
In a paper delivered in Vietnam at the weekend, Professor Thayer says ''south-east Asia is ripe for rivalry - but not armed conflict - due to the strategic mistrust between a rising and increasingly militarily powerful China and a US committed to maintaining the present balance of power''.
Senior US officials said Mr Obama's trip to Cambodia, the first by a US president, would reinforce the ''pivot'' of US security forces to Asia and the Pacific. The strategy is seen as a counterweight to China, which is aggressively asserting its claim to almost all the South China Sea. Parts of the area are also claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam.
In his paper, Professor Thayer says the ''most disturbing'' trend in defence spending is China's growing reliance on citizen fishing fleets and paramilitary forces gathering in a disputed area to assert Chinese jurisdiction.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/arms-race-explodes-as-neighbours-try-to-counter-china-20121118-29k4m.html#ixzz2Cg2XecEj

PHNOM PENH: An arms-buying spree across south-east Asia will be the elephant in the room when almost 20 world leaders meet in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, on Tuesday.

Defence spending across the region increased 13.5 per cent to $US25.4 billion ($24.5 billion) last year and was expected to rise to $US40 billion by 2016, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said.

Flush with economic success and wary of China's military expansion, countries are acquiring sophisticated sea- and air-based arsenals that include dozens of submarines that can operate in secret.

The institute said Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia had increased defence budgets by 66 per cent to 82 per cent from 2002 to last year.
Advertisement

Indonesia was buying submarines from South Korea and coastal radar systems from China and the US, Vietnam was getting submarines and combat jets from Russia and had acquired Israeli ballistic missiles, defence analysts said.

Vietnam's defence budget for this year is $US3.1 billion, a rise of 35 per cent over last year. The Philippines has a huge wish-list of equipment it wants from the US and is also approaching Japan, South Korea, France and Britain for defence acquisitions.

Singapore, already the fifth-largest weapons importing nation, looked like keeping its title as the region's biggest spender, allocating $US9.7 billion this year on defence, 24 per cent of its national budget. The city-state's purchases included combat jets from the US and submarines from Sweden.

Thailand was planning to buy submarines and warplanes from Sweden that would eventually be fitted with anti-ship missiles, while arms deliveries to Malaysia jumped eightfold over the five years to 2009.

For decades, much of south-east Asia spent little on weapons except guns and tanks to respond to internal threats. But they are now building their defence capabilities amid tensions over territorial claims in the South China Sea and other squabbles that underscore the role of the East Asia Summit.

Leaders attending include the US President, Barack Obama, the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, and the Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard.

Defence officials estimated 86 submarines would be added to regional fleets by 2020, 30 of which would belong to China, which already had the most.

Some Chinese nuclear submarines were expected to carry 12 sea-launched ballistic missiles and could eventually be equipped with multiple warheads.

A south-east Asia analyst from the Australian Defence Force Academy at the University of NSW, Carl Thayer, said the ''deployment of nuclear submarines, including ballistic missile submarines, will introduce a new geostrategic dimension to the regional balance of power''.

Professor Thayer said Chinese nuclear submarine deployments would attract continuing attention from the US Navy. He warned the arms buying spree could have a destabilising impact on regional security.

In a paper delivered in Vietnam at the weekend, Professor Thayer says ''south-east Asia is ripe for rivalry - but not armed conflict - due to the strategic mistrust between a rising and increasingly militarily powerful China and a US committed to maintaining the present balance of power''.

Senior US officials said Mr Obama's trip to Cambodia, the first by a US president, would reinforce the ''pivot'' of US security forces to Asia and the Pacific. The strategy is seen as a counterweight to China, which is aggressively asserting its claim to almost all the South China Sea. Parts of the area are also claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam.

In his paper, Professor Thayer says the ''most disturbing'' trend in defence spending is China's growing reliance on citizen fishing fleets and paramilitary forces gathering in a disputed area to assert Chinese jurisdiction.