Vietnam/China/South China Sea: Vietnam Has Much at Stake in S. China Sea

Mar 28, 2015 | Pierre Tran, Defense News
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Vietnam's national security and economic development are tied up in a risk-laden dispute over the South China Sea with China, the neighboring giant whose policies are hard to predict, said Hoang Anh Tuan, director of the Vietnamese Institute for Foreign Affairs and Strategic Studies.

A "confrontation in the South China Sea could be more devastating than any wars, any confrontations that you have seen in the region," Tuan said March 23 at a conference held by Institut de Recherche Stratégique de l'Ecole Militaire (IRSEM), a think tank at the French military's staff college.

Vietnam and China have long contested claims over the Spratly and Paracel islands, including last year's dispute over China's attempted oil drilling and clashes between Vietnamese fishermen and Chinese boats. China is also laying claim to territory, which has prompted concern in the region.