Changing thinking about the living space of the East Sea

Currently, the topic of the East Sea is attracting the attention of many academics and the public. There are opinions that the first thing to do in researching the East Sea is to clearly define the research objectives. So, in your opinion, what is our objective in researching the East Sea?

For some reason, for a long time we have emphasized our characteristics of agriculture, farmers, and rural areas, forgetting that Vietnam is a maritime nation. Only recently, when the issue of sovereignty became very urgent, did we pay much attention to the sea and declare Vietnam a maritime nation. It is clear that we have more than 3,000 km of coastline but turn our backs on the sea. Regarding the mindset of swimming out to sea, to be honest, the image of swimming out to sea makes me think a lot, from the image of bamboo-leaf boats, basket boats or iron ships that the Government invested in and supported for people to build, but they are useless, they will definitely sink when they go out to sea. Just look at our fishing boats going out to sea, Chinese ships only run at high speed and water already floods our ships, not to mention they crash into us.

Therefore, our biggest goal when studying the East Sea is to have a comprehensive, systematic, interdisciplinary understanding of the East Sea because this is not only related to the issue of sovereignty disputes but also to the issue of living space. Looking at the geostrategic aspect, Vietnam cannot go to the North or West anymore, it can only go to space or to the sea, but going to space is facing limited resources, the delta has been fully exploited, so it has to swim to the sea.

We must also abandon the mindset of exploiting without scientific knowledge and relying on gold forests and silver seas, which will cause very serious consequences.

To achieve the above research goals, in your opinion, which factor is the most important?

First of all, we need a unified direction from the top down along with a systematic strategy. Currently, we have six or seven research centers and institutes on the East Sea, but only the East Sea Research Support Fund and the East Sea Research Institute (under the Diplomatic Academy) have the policy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - the official voice of the State. In addition, all other efforts are just proactive initiatives of research and teaching agencies. So, perhaps the State's viewpoint is to assign this issue to the diplomatic side. Or does the State want to focus research on one source for easier management? In my opinion, if possible, there should be a number of research centers on the East Sea, located in the North, Central and South regions. And since it is a scientific issue, it should be placed under the Ministry of Science and Technology, not just a political research center.

Up to now, there has not been a clear message from the State in encouraging and widely supporting researchers. For example, the Nafosted Fund has not funded any topics on the East Sea. Even in training, universities have not encouraged graduate students to focus on research on this issue.

This situation may be due to the lack of policies, the lack of resources, or thirdly, they think that this topic may be a bit of a “monopoly” of the diplomatic sector. For example, the organization of the East Sea conference at the national level is only assigned to the Diplomatic Academy and the Lawyers Association. When Hanoi National University organizes a conference on the East Sea, it must ask permission from all relevant ministries and finally the Government Office to organize it. In addition, international scholars also say that the large scale of the international conference organized by the Diplomatic Academy and the Lawyers Association makes it difficult for them to discuss in depth.

So what do you think should be done to encourage academic freedom in research on the East Sea?

We must diversify and academicize the East Sea issue. Nowadays, international relations and foreign policy need the participation of many entities, not just the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but also academic institutions. However, our country has not encouraged independent academic organizations (think tanks), which is a very popular model in the US, Australia and developed countries.

If we have diversified our foreign policy, now we must also diversify our dialogue on the East Sea, and even the people must participate. We need to enhance the capacity of the people, both in terms of technical knowledge of ships and legal knowledge, so that they can work with the state to protect sovereignty. Once the people understand the law better, sovereignty will be better protected. Border disputes and sovereignty disputes can be resolved and maintained thanks to the people, not just thanks to the coast guard and law enforcement forces. It can be seen that our fishermen still lack knowledge and still have legal problems with foreign countries when fishing at sea. For example, recently Thailand captured four of our fishing boats, and Indonesia has also captured Vietnamese fishing boats many times because the people do not understand which sea areas are ours and which are theirs, they do not clearly know 12 nautical miles and 200 nautical miles.

Some opinions suggest that, instead of focusing on basic research such as archeology and history to prove historical sovereignty in the East Sea, priority should be given to legal research to participate and “gain advantage” in discussions on disputes in the East Sea. What is your opinion on this point of view?

I think both approaches are very important. The first direction is focused by legal scholars and international relations researchers on international law to determine the issue of sovereignty and jurisdiction. The second direction tries to find and prove sovereignty in history, developed by historians and culturalists. Up to now, Vietnam has probably approached the second direction more, that is, sovereignty in history and culture.

I affirm that these two trends must be combined in the study of the East Sea to have an interdisciplinary approach. But in the current context, when it comes to sovereignty, the struggle in terms of international law is a more weighty voice, unless we have undeniable historical evidence. We can see through the recent PCA ruling that historical evidence does not have a decisive impact on the Permanent Court of Arbitration in making sovereignty judgments on disputed areas. The Permanent Court of Arbitration requires that if a country wants to prove sovereignty over a sea or island, it must have a process of peaceful occupation and continuous exploitation, while historical evidence stating that a country discovered a sea or island 2,000 years ago but did not continuously occupy it is not considered sovereignty. For example, China has argued that the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea came later and that it has had sovereignty over the waters for thousands of years, but the Permanent Court of Arbitration also rejected these historical grounds.

According to you, what solutions do we need to soon have a team of researchers who can meet the research goals on the East Sea?

It is true that we are lacking experts on the East Sea. Therefore, it is urgent to organize training well. It must be immediately taught with appropriate content in history textbooks for high school. Then continue to provide systematic, in-depth, and objective training at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. There should be an orientation to have a certain proportion of students, graduate students, and researchers researching this issue. In addition, it is also necessary to build a number of centers and institutes in universities or relevant agencies (affiliated with specialized universities, regional universities, and places near the sea). What the State can do is to allocate budget resources from Project 911, or Nafosted Fund or a separate source for East Sea research, so that postgraduate students can study abroad, researchers can participate in scientific seminars, conferences, short-term courses, post-doctoral studies, etc. Especially, it is necessary to attract foreign experts to work in research institutes and universities. It is necessary to create a domestic and international connection network between Vietnamese and international scholars in East Sea research, especially connecting interdisciplinary research related to the East Sea.

Thank you!

Source: http://tiasang.com.vn/Default.aspx?tabid=110&CategoryID=36&News=9933