Vietnam Airlines plans flights to disputed Spratly Islands
HANOI - Vietnam's state-run carrier plans to open a new air route to the Spratly archipelago in the South China sea, a move that is likely to draw China's ire. Nguyen Hai Thanh, a marketing official of Vietnam Airlines Services Co., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the flag carrier, said the company could open a line in 2005.
"It is aimed at promoting tourism," Thanh said. "The project will be submitted to Vietnam Airlines and the government for approval in either September or October.
"If things go as planned, the company will use Russian-made Antonov 38s to fly to the archipelago early next year," he said.
In May, Vietnam began renovating an old airport with a disused 600-metre (yard) runway on an island occupied by its military in the disputed Spratlys to enable tourists to fly in.
The decision was immediately blasted by China as a violation of its sovereignty.
A month earlier, Vietnam had sent a boatload of sightseers to the islands, enraging neighbors with competing claims to the islands.
China and Vietnam, along with Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan, lay claim to areas around the Spratlys, which straddle vital shipping lanes and fishing grounds and are believed to contain vast oil and gas reserves.
Except for Brunei, all the claimants have military personnel scattered across the archipelago of more than 100 islets, reefs and atolls.
In the past, the squabbling has erupted into violence. The most serious incident occurred in 1988 when Chinese and Vietnamese naval forces clashed at Johnson Reef, resulting in the deaths of 78 Vietnamese navy personnel.
The communist neighbors clashed again in the Spratlys in 1992, and since then there have been numerous other incidents between claimants.
Agence France Presse - August 20, 2004.
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