"It is now possible to look at each other into the eyes with calmness, talk to and hear from each other and speak out what they really think about each other," said Ambassador Đặng Đình Quý, Director of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, co-chair person of the workshop "The East Sea - Cooperation for Regional Security and Development,” about the atmosphere and initial results obtained in the two-day workshop from 4-5 November 2011.

Speaking at the seminar, Mr. R. C. Severino – a Filipino diplomat, former Secretary General of ASEAN, Director of ASEAN Studies Center, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore – pointed to the unconvincing arguments of a state that finds regulations of international law no longer conforming to its vital or core interests or unfavorable for the strategies chosen by that state.


When one party hurts many other parties

The most outstanding example cited by the veteran diplomat R. C. Severino is that the nine-dash claim almost embraces the entire East Sea on the official map of China. Such a map was first introduced in 1947 by the government of the Republic of China, who held the power to control China at that time, and officially submitted by the People’s Republic of China to the UN Commission for the Limits of the Continental Shelf in 2009.
Despite questions raised by the ASEAN countries, including those on its sovereignty and non-sovereignty claims, Beijing has persistently refused to say exactly what the nine-dash line means... In fact, the nine-dash line running in this area is not accurately positioned with a coordinate system and, therefore, merely a line drawn on the map without any legal basis...

In their speeches and direct debates, scholars many times laid emphasis on the ambiguity, lack of science as well as legal documents in Chinese scholars’ claims for territorial sovereignty, islands and waters. Dr. David Koh (National University of Singapore) said that the opinion of Professor Ly Jianwei (Director of Research Center for Maritime Law - National Institute for the South Sea China Studies, China) on the basis of the “bull-tongue” claim is completely unconvincing. Professor Evgeny Kanaev - Moscow Institute of World Economy and International Relations - even held that most of the evidences on sovereignty introduced by China in the East Sea dispute are false and unacceptable.

Towards security and development

Similar to the restraint shown on the workshop table, scholars recognized that although the situation in the East Sea, which has became heated very fast, is now calming down again after a series of diplomatic moves from many parties involved. And everyone, from heads of states to scholars and ordinary people, understands that no one would benefit when disputes break out in the East Sea. All parties, from the perspective of their different interests, have tried to introduce more and more practical solutions.

Professor Mary George (Malaya University, Malaysia) proposed a military solution to the issue that “an area that limits the determined maritime and air defense purposes can be established over the South China Sea?.  With a reality that is sensitive and easy to give rise to disputes each day, especially fishing, Professor Wang Kuan-hsiung (Taiwan) proposed solutions to fisheries disputes in the East Sea through regional cooperation and management. Mr. Vũ Hải Đăng, a doctoral candidate of the Dalhousie University - Canada, advocated that a bilateral network of the protected sea areas between China and Vietnam can be set up to replace the Chinese unilateral fishing ban in the East Sea."

Professor Jon Van Dyke of the University of Hawaii (USA) said that the East Sea is semi-enclosed sea, so under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, coastal nations should work together to enforce their rights and obligations, especially to protect the marine environment as the real situation of the East Sea environment is extremely alarming with marine resources being exhausted and 80% of coral reefs being contaminated...

Mr. Phạm Quốc Anh – President of the Vietnam Lawyers' Association, the co-chair of the workshop – held that the restraint in debate attitude, the openness in exchanges of information among scholars led to rather good results of the workshop. With legal and historical evidences currently in hand of the Vietnamese scholars, together with documents newly provided by international scholars, the Vietnam Lawyers' Association will jointly organize two more international workshops on the East Sea, namely "Vietnam’s sovereignty over the East Sea through historical evidences" and "Sovereignty of nations over the East Sea - The basis of international law” in the near future./.