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How COVID-19 is Stifling Vietnam's Agenda to Vie with China over Disputed Sea

Ralph Jennings

   TAIPEI, TAIWAN - The coronavirus outbreak is dashing hopes in Vietnam
   that its lead role in a regional bloc of countries this year will help
   resolve a sticky maritime sovereignty dispute with China.

   Vietnam is chairing the 10-member country Association of Southeast
   Asian Nations through 2020, a once-per-decade opportunity for each bloc
   member. The association better known as ASEAN sometimes uses statements
   and talks to pressure Beijing over its South China Sea claims. ASEAN
   members Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam dispute some of
   the Chinese claims. Vietnam is the most outspoken.

   But online meetings of the type that ASEAN members have held this year
   to date, due to coronavirus concerns, are unlikely to produce
   diplomatic momentum, scholars say. In-person meetings build more trust,
   in turn generating more deals, and any events that do take place will
   focus more on responses to the coronavirus pandemic rather than on
   geopolitics, they believe.

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