Reuters
Wednesday, April 3 2002

Vietnam says project to set China border underway

 
HANOI, April 3 (Reuters) - Vietnam and China have started a three year process to demarcate their land border, which has been a long running source of tension in their relationship, official media reported on Wednesday.

The Vietnamese government has been criticised by dissidents who say it is giving away too much land to China, but it said the new border would show this was not the case. Work on marking the boundary started last December under a treaty signed in 1999.     The Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper said Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien told the National Assembly on Tuesday that the agreement would finally settle one of three border disputes that had existed for centuries between Vietnam and China.

The border treaty met the mutual interests of both countries and would help maintain stability in the border areas, he said.

Vietnam and China also have competing claims in the Tonkin Gulf and the South China Sea, addressed in two agreements on fisheries and on the delineation of the Tonkin Gulf signed in December 2000 but not yet in force -- although negotiations are ongoing.

"From the past until now there have been disputes on fisheries and oil and gas which took place regularly and were complicated because the Gulf has not been delineated," Nien said.

Wednesday's Quan Doi Nhan Dan (People's Army) daily said the border treaty developments should counter claims Vietnam was ceding too much territory to China.

"The report has enlightened an accurate awareness of the signed agreements," it said. "It is against the distorted views of hostile forces with plots to sabotage the people's unity."

Last month, media rights groups said Vietnam detained two dissidents for publishing criticism on the Internet of border agreements with China, saying Hanoi had given too much away and calling for a re-examination of the accords.

Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontiers called for the release of computer teacher Le Chi Quang and literature professor Tran Khue.

In January, Vietnam placed journalist Bui Minh Quoc under house arrest after he investigated the controversial demarcation agreement. The government has confirmed his detention but denied it was to silence criticism of Hanoi's border treaties.

00:45 04-03-02