Vietnam places an order for 6 Kilo-class submarines; Taiwan asserts its ‘unquestionable’ sovereignty over islands in South China Sea, in the wake of attempts by Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam to extend the outer limits of their continental shelves
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    • Reports noted that Vietnam placed an order for 6 Kilo-class submarines worth an estimated $1.8 billion. The order was considered significant in the light of the growing Chinese naval presence around Vietnam as well as in the background of the country’s annual military budget, of just about $3.6 billion1.

    Taiwan meanwhile reaffirmed its ‘unquestionable’ sovereignty over several island groups in the South China Sea in the wake of recent bids by Malaysia and Vietnam to extend the outer limits of their continental shelves to include the disputed region. Taiwan’s assertions were in the context of Malaysia and Vietnam jointly submitting an application to the UN to have their continental margins extended beyond 200 nautical miles on May 6, followed by a separate application submitted by Vietnam the following day. Taipei reaffirmed its sovereignty over the Spratly Islands, the Paracel Islands, the Maccelesfield Bank, the Pratas Islands and their surrounding areas2.

    In the Philippines, Typhoon Kurija resulted in the death of 27 people and left over 54,000 homeless, even as the government warned of another storm gathering in the South China Sea. Most of the casualties were recorded in Magallanes town in Sorsogon province3.

    China meanwhile has set up a special department of boundary and ocean affairs to deal with its land and sea boundary demarcation issues, particularly those of the East and the South China sea. The department will be headed by Ning Fukui, a senior diplomat and specialist in Asian affairs. A Chinese government official pointed out that as China shared its land boundary of 22,000 kms with 14 neighboring countries, had a coastline of 18,000 kms and maritime territory encompassing three million sq. kms., the need for a special department to deal adequately with land and sea boundary issues was acutely felt4.

    In other developments, the US Pentagon accused two Chinese fishing vessels of confronting a US Navy surveillance ship ‘The Victorious’ on May 1 in international waters about 170 miles away from the Chinese mainland. This was the fifth incident of its kind in the previous two months when both the US and China have confronted each other on the sea, heightening tensions between the navies of the two major powers5.

    Indonesia’s ruling Democratic Party once again won the country’s parliamentary election held on April 9 by winning 148 seats. The country’s presidential elections will be held on July 86. Indonesia has decided to raise its contribution to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) by Rp 2 trillion or US$188 million within the next four year7.

    Reports indicated that Malaysian authorities were on the lookout for LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, who had reportedly fled to either Malaysia or India in the wake of the Sri Lankan Army operations against his organization8.

    Addressing the opening ceremony of the ASEAN+3 Health Ministers’ meeting at Bangkok on April 7, Thai PM Abhisit Vejjajiva called on the member states of the association to work together to help prevent and tackle a possible outbreak of the H1N1 influenza virus in the region9.

    In Myanmar, the military junta rejected the recent appeals made by the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) to release the detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi10. Reports noted that the Burmese police have rather tightened its security around Suu Kyi after the recent arrest of an American citizen who allegedly attempted to sneak into the detained leader’s home11. In a related development, over 60 members of the British Parliament urged the UN to inquire into the crimes against humanity committed under Myanmar’s ruling military junta. They have also suggested that the UN should invoke the principle of Responsibility to Protest (R2P) in relation to the present crisis in that country12.

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