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HANOI: Vietnam has strongly criticized Taiwan President Chen
Shuibian’s weekend visit to the disputed Spratly Islands in the
South China Sea, in a statement reported by state media Sunday.
“Taiwan has to take full responsibility for
any consequence caused by this action,” said foreign ministry
spokesman Le Dung in reaction to Chen’s visit to Taiping, the
largest island in the group.
“Vietnam considers the action a serious
escalation that violated Vietnam’s territorial sovereignty in
regard to the Truong Sa [Spratly] archipelago and increased tension
as well as complication in the region.”
Dung reiterated that Vietnam possesses strong
historic evidence and legal grounds to confirm its sovereignty over
the Spratly and Paracel archipelagos.
“Vietnam demands Taiwan put an immediate end
to such violations in the region,” Dung said in a statement
carried by the Vietnam News Agency.
China, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and the
Philippines claim all or part of the potentially oil-rich Spratly
islets.
Taiwan President Chen on Saturday visited the
Spratly Islands, the defense ministry said, in a move aimed at
underscoring Taipei’s claim to the disputed group but which will
likely spark tensions in the region.
Soon after his arrival at Taiping Islet, the
president oversaw the opening ceremony of a newly-built runway, the
ministry’s news agency said on its website.
It added that Chen, the first Taiwanese leader
to visit the Spratlys, was “warmly welcomed” by troops stationed
there after arriving at 10:32 a.m.
Speaking at the ceremony, Chen proposed a
“Spratly Initiative” calling for a peaceful solution to the
disputed claims of the group and promoting marine conservation in
the region, a presidential statement said.
“Facing the complicated and sensitive
territorial and sovereignty disputes in the South China Sea, Taiwan
urges the countries involved to peacefully resolve the issues”
according to international regulations, the statement quoted Chen as
saying.
Chen left Taipei early Saturday on his
presidential jet to a base in Taiwan’s south where he took an air
force C-130 transport plane to the Spratlys.
He spent several hours in Taiping, the biggest
island in the group, to inspect troops before the Lunar New Year on
February 7. Defense Minister Lee Tien-yu and Interior Minister Lee
Yi-yang accompanied the president.
The Philippines on Saturday expressed “serious
concern” over Chen’s trip and warned it could affect relative
peace in the area.
“The Philippines, therefore, urges all parties
concerned to exercise prudence, self-restraint and use diplomacy as
the toll to settle disputes,” Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo
said.
Taiwanese media have said the visit was aimed at
drumming up support for Frank Hsieh, the candidate for Chen’s
independence-leaning ruling Democratic Progressive Party in the
March 22 presidential election.
Hsieh is locked in a heated race with the
opposition Kuomintang’s Ma Ying-jeou to succeed Chen, who is to
retire in May after eight years in office.
Taiwan’s defense ministry completed
construction of the 1,150-meter-long (3,800-feet) runway on
fortified Taiping in December, despite opposition from Vietnam.
Hanoi also protested last week after a Taiwanese
C-130 transport plane landed on the islet in a clandestine test
flight.
-- AFP
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