Coastguard vessels in South China Sea need code of conduct amid increasing risk of clashes in contested waters, say analysts
Nations' rival territorial claims in region hindering efforts to increase cooperation, say observers
Red tape and conflicting sovereignty interests are hindering efforts to set up a coastguard code of conduct in the South China Sea, despite the rising risk of confrontation, observers said.
They said part of the problem was that coastguards often fell under various government agencies, especially in China where the authorities are still centralising maritime law enforcement, making it difficult for Beijing to commit to a code.
Tensions in the disputed waters have risen over China’s competing territorial claims with Southeast Asian neighbours and close encounters between Chinese and US military vessels. But Asia-Pacific naval chiefs approved a code of conduct two years ago to defuse unexpected encounters between navy vessels and aircraft.
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New concerns have surfaced as coastguards have stepped up patrols of the sea, but the clashes have yet to escalate to the level of a military confrontation.
Tang Siew Mun, head of the Asian Studies Centre at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, said the absence of a code for coastguards was troubling.
“The existing Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea, which counts all the South China Sea claimant states as signatories, applies only to navy vessels and does not cover coastguards, fishing fleets and other enforcement agencies,” Tang said. “This gap is worrisome as skirmishes between coastguard ships and fishing fleets have been on the rise in the South China Sea, and would most likely be the flashpoint that sets the [area] ablaze.”
