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Vietnam Advances Plan to Protect Disputed Maritime Claims with Stronger
Fishing Fleet

Ralph Jennings

   HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM - Vietnamese boats fish so far outside their
   territorial waters that authorities in Malaysia and the Philippines
   sometimes spot them. Now Vietnamese state agencies are falling in line
   behind a long-term blueprint that analysts say would increase use of
   their country's fishing fleet to assert sovereignty over the South
   China Sea that is contested by five other governments.

   Plans to strengthen fishing by 2030 follow from a resolution passed
   last year by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
   The resolution calls for "sustainable development of the maritime
   economy" and advances toward becoming "a powerful maritime nation",
   domestic media outlet VnExpress International reports.

   Vietnam's intentions for the South China Sea surfaced among leaders
   from 10 Southeast Asian countries this month at an annual summit.
   Vietnam will chair that bloc, the Association of Southeast Asian
   Nations, in 2020 and have more say-so over its decisions.

   Part of the strategy is to develop a "very strong" fishing fleet, said
   Nguyen Thanh Trung, Center for International Studies director at the
   University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City. If
   challenged, officials could say it's civilian only.

   "I would say it's actually politically smart because, end of day, you
   are using fishermen to assert your sovereignty to show that 'I always
   have a presence there, they are not military personnel, because I don't
   think they will wear uniforms at all when they are operating out
   there,'" said Collin Koh, maritime security research fellow at Nanyang
   Technological University in Singapore.

   Stronger fishing fleet

   A law passed 10 years ago got the 2030 process started. It recommended
   that a self-defense militia escort Vietnamese fishing fleets. Five
   years later, Vietnam issued a protocol aimed at helping fishermen who
   build bigger ships as a means of going farther out to sea.

   A study by the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in
   Singapore says Vietnamese banks have loaned $176 million to fishermen
   for upgrades of some 400 ships. More than 10,000 fishermen from one
   province were given infrared night vision binoculars and firearms.

   By 2030, the government will probably establish an agency to carry out
   the plan and bring in experts to help, Nguyen said. At the moment, he
   said, officials lack coordination and "specific road maps." Fuel
   subsidies for fishing boats are one option, Nguyen said, likewise
   stronger coast guard protection.

   Aquaculture and fishing as well as industry along the 3,500-kilometer
   Vietnamese coast should see "breakthroughs" by 2030, Vietnam Law &
   Legal Forum magazine online reported in December 2018. "Fishing
   activities will be reorganized to reduce onshore fishing, intensify
   offshore and ocean fishing'¦and fishing logistics services will be well
   organized," the report said.

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