“The sea is full of unseen treasures, but safety lies in the security of the shores.”
(An Indian saying)
Through ages the South China Sea (SCS), lapping over the southern Chinese coast and dotted with more than 200 small islands of rock and reef, has been fabled as a hazardous passage by seafarers and explorers. The rather recent discovery of large reserves of oil and gas hidden beneath its waves has added to the lure of adventure in its perilous waters by energy-starved nations. No wonder that competing territorial claims over the SCS territory are numerous and with the littoral States – Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and China – staking claims over various islands, the scope for raking trouble in the sensitive area is infinite.
Developments in the past few months indicate that an international intrigue is underway to challenge China’s sovereignty over the SCS islands and the willing decoy to draw in the Chinese dragon happens to be none other than India.
The SCS is far away from India and its oil exploratory expertise is nascent, yet New Delhi plans to collaborate with Vietnam for jointly undertaking oil exploration in disputed areas, is loaded with mischief. In October this year, India’s State-run Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) announced its three-year deal with PetroVietnam for oil exploration in the areas that are disputed between China and Vietnam. Already there are American and Australian companies exploring in partnership with Vietnam, but restricting themselves to the country’s continental shelf and coastal areas having well defined territorial boundaries.
Currently, oil and natural gas exploration is in progress on the eastern shores of Vietnam, east of Malaysia, north of Indonesia and Brunei, west of the Philippines and south of China, yet no East Asian country, till now, has resorted to offshore oil drilling in the “blue waters” of the strategically important sea. In such sensitive environments, India’s unwelcomed gate crashing to sink its oil drills in the heart of the disputed zone constitutes a serious challenge to China’s writ in its own backyard.
Such reckless venture to seek a foothold in China’s underbelly, obviously, drew fire and brimstone from its Foreign Office and media. “China enjoys indisputable sovereignty over the South China Sea islands and our position is based on full historical and jurisprudential evidence,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hong Lei.
Referring to India’s totally uncalled for oil exploration on behalf of Vietnam, he amply underpinned the message for it to back off; “any country engaged in oil and gas exploration activities in this jurisdiction without the approval of the Chinese government constitutes an infringement upon China’s sovereignty and national interest and such activities are, therefore, illegal and invalid. Countries outside the region should respect efforts by the regional countries to solve this dispute through bilateral negotiations.”
Likewise, Beijing’s message to New Delhi through its media was packed with manifest anger. The China Energy News, a subsidiary of the People’s Daily, known to reflect the Communist policy views, made it clear that Indian intervention in the SCS was unacceptable. “India’s energy strategy is slipping into an extremely dangerous whirlpool. On the question of cooperation with Vietnam, the bottom line for Indian companies is that they must not enter into the disputed waters of the SCS. Indian oil company policymakers should consider the interests of their own country, turn around at the soonest opportunity and leave the South China Sea,” it said.
Addressing the Indian policymakers it warned: “Challenging the core interests of a large rising county for unknown oil at the bottom of the sea will not only lead to a crushing defeat for the Indian company, but will most seriously harm India’s whole energy security and interrupt its economic development.”
The Indian attempt to cross the line for foreign interference in the SCS disputes was no thoughtless isolated action; it was rather smartly dovetailed in the overall scheme of things to provide a preamble and precursor for the US-led chorus at the ASEAN and East Asia Summit (EAS), held in Indonesia in the third week of November, to turn the issue of China’s sovereignty over the SCS into an international maritime problem. President Barack Obama’s presence, at the sixth East Asia Summit held on November 19-20, 2011, indicated the importance Washington attached to the forum for rallying the south eastern regional countries on a confrontational mode with Beijing by setting the stage for foreign interference in a domain that China rightly treats as its backyard and natural sphere of influence.
The Indian endeavours to make a prominent niche in the East Asian affairs to disturb regional harmony by planning to send its oil drillers in the disputed areas has left the Chinese government deeply unhappy. China used the EAS to reiterate its concern over India’s enthusiasm to fish in the troubled water of SCS disputes. The country’s premier, Wen Jiabao, met with the Indian Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, on the sidelines of EAS and made it clear that “outside forces” and “foreign [read Indian] companies” should be clear about the SCS disputes. Beijing does not want third party interference in the resolution of bilateral disputes in the region – least of all India, who remains an outsider and wants to pursue an agenda that seeks to embarrass and impede China in its rise as an upcoming global power.
The Indian uncalled for interference in the SCS to accentuate the brewing trouble in close cooperation with the US and Australia is bad news for its neighbours. Similar ambitions in Afghanistan to make the country a venue for a proxy war with Pakistan has already translated into untold miseries for the Afghan people and has led to extreme instability in FATA area, Balochistan and even in Pakistani hinterland.
Also, the Indian tendency to use the platform of regional forums to pursue its regional and extra-regional ambitions is beginning to gnaw at the usefulness of these bodies. It is worth noting that while India has used its presence in the ASEAN and EAS to push China into a corner by instigating the members to raise bilateral disputes as multilateral issues, it has steadfastly refused to address bilateral issues at the SAARC forum; Kashmir being one of them.
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