China, Vietnam sign pact to resolve maritime disputes

Oct 12, 2011, 7:53 GMT

Beijing - China and Vietnam pledged to resolve maritime disputes through negotiations, agreeing to set up a hotline and hold regular talks, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun and his Vietnamese counterpart, Ho Xuan Son, signed an agreement on Tuesday, the same day that Chinese President Hu Jintao urged the head of Vietnam's ruling Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong, to accept joint development of disputed areas.

The two countries were committed to 'friendly consultations in order to properly handle maritime issues and make the South China Sea a sea of peace, friendship and cooperation', according to a copy of the agreement posted on the ministry's website.

Both nations should 'accommodate each other's concerns in a constructive manner,' said the agreement, which was based on a 1993 document on basic principles to resolve territorial and border disputes.

The new agreement said China and Vietnam should promote the resolution of talks over demarcating the inshore area of the Beibu Gulf and discuss the joint development of the gulf.

They also pledged to cooperate in 'less sensitive' fields such as marine environmental protection, scientific research, and search and rescue activities.

They would hold regular talks twice a year and set up a hotline system for handling maritime issues, the agreement said.

On Tuesday, Hu told Trong that they should 'not allow the maritime issue to affect relations between the two nations and two (Communist) parties.'

Trong arrived in China for a five-day visit timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties, after a brief naval battle over the disputed Spratly Islands in 1988.

China said talks with Vietnam in late June over maritime areas near the Spratlys had eased tension that had built earlier this year.

But Hanoi issued a formal protest in August after Chinese ships carried out a scientific survey near the islands.

Tuesday's agreement did not mention the Spratlys, or Nansha islands in Chinese.

China claims the entire Spratlys, which are believed to be rich in oil, mineral and marine resources. The islands are also claimed in whole or in part by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan.

China and Vietnam fought a brief but violent border war in 1979, but economic and diplomatic ties have gradually improved over the last decade.