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Australia-Burma



Downer's plan to douse tensions at sea
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>From South-East Asia correspondent PETER ALFORD and foreign affairs writer
ROBERT GARRAN in Singapore

27 July 99

(The Australian)

AUSTRALIA has proposed a three-point plan to stabilise territorial tensions
in the South China Sea.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and US Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright pushed foreign ministers of Association of South-East Asian Nations
and China to adopt the plan during yesterday's ASEAN Regional Forum security
talks.

"All the relevant parties need to acknowledge the existence of conflicting
claims," he said later. "Secondly, that there should be a moratorium on the
occupation of new reefs and a moratorium on any new constructions and,
thirdly, there should be agreement on mutual self-restraint to avoid
incidents at sea."

The Spratly Islands, at the heart of the South China Sea and straddling some
of the world's most strategically critical sea lanes, are claimed wholly by
Vietnam and in parts by The Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei. China lays
claim to the entire sea.

In recent weeks, the Philippine navy has sunk two Chinese fishing boats in
waters where Beijing and Manila are at loggerheads over Chinese facilities
on Mischief Reef, and a new Malaysian "structure" was discovered on a reef
claimed by it and The Philippines.

Dr Albright said the Americans were increasingly worried by rising tensions
in the area.

"Several nations have sought to bolster their claims by building or
upgrading outposts, incidents at sea have multiplied, tensions have risen,"
she said.

The Australian-US proposal to give management of South China Sea issues to
the forum ­ the 10 ASEAN foreign ministers and their 10 "dialogue
partners" ­ was stymied yesterday by China's Foreign Minister, Tang Jiaxuan.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said: "China's position is
that these disputes should be resolved through bilateral negotiations
between the countries concerned, in a peaceful manner."

China opposed the involvement of non-claimant nations in discussions and a
proposed ASEAN South China Sea "code of conduct" understood to contain the
elements proposed by Australia.


However, on the basis of recent talks with Mr Tang in Beijing, Mr Downer
remained hopeful China would "start to come along with the idea of a code of
conduct".

"I don't think, in the end, it's going to be possible to manage this issue
without addressing the core elements and those three points are its core
elements," he said.

Ms Zhang said Mr Tang was expected to discuss the South China Sea at ASEAN
post-ministerial talks today, leading to speculation he could offer a
compromise proposal.

Pressure from Australia, the US and the European Union also appears to have
opened a crack in the deadlocked proposal for resuming World Bank aid to
Burma, in return for political concessions from the State Peace and
Development Council regime.

Mr Downer confirmed Burma's Foreign Minister, Win Aung, had agreed to allow
the UN special envoy on Burma, Alvaro de Soto, to accompany World Bank
officials to Rangoon in September. The Burmese refused his two earlier visa
applications.