WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Vietnam has considerably expanded island-building work in areas it claims within the Spratly Islands chain of the disputed South China Sea and can match and certain surpass the dimensions of such exercise there by China, a U.S. assume tank reported on Friday.
Current satellite tv for pc imagery confirmed that because the begin of this 12 months, Vietnam has expanded island-building to eight options beforehand untouched by a spherical of reclamation that started in 2021, the report from Washington’s Heart for Strategic and Worldwide Research mentioned.
The report from CSIS’s Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, mentioned the imagery confirmed Vietnam has undertaken dredging and landfill work at Alison Reef, Collins Reef, East Reef, Landsdowne Reef and Petley Reefs.
The work meant that every one 21 Vietnamese-occupied rocks and low-tide elevations within the Spratly Islands chain have now been expanded to incorporate synthetic land, when 4 years in the past a majority hosted solely remoted pillbox buildings.
The report mentioned new enlargement had additionally begun at three options that already hosted medium-sized synthetic islands created in earlier rounds of dredging: Amboyna Cay, Grierson Reef, and West Reef.
“As of March 2025, Vietnam had created about 70% as a lot synthetic land within the Spratlys as China had,” it mentioned. “Reclamation at these eight new options all however ensures that Vietnam will match – and certain surpass – the dimensions of Beijing’s island-building.”
China claims virtually your entire South China Sea, regardless of overlapping claims by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. Beijing has performed intensive island-building work there opposed by the USA and its allies and companions.
The CSIS report mentioned the photographs confirmed infrastructure, together with munitions storage containers, was starting to seem on Vietnamese claimed reefs the place dredging work was approaching completion, corresponding to Barque Canada Reef, Discovery Nice Reef, Ladd Reef, Namyit Island, Pearson Reef, Sand Cay, and Tennent Reef.
It mentioned the placement of latest buildings and munitions depots appeared to preclude the potential of full-length runways on a number of the longer options and mentioned a runway at Barque Canada was seemingly the one one being constructed to hitch Vietnam’s sole present airstrip at Spratly Island.China and Vietnam’s Washington embassies didn’t instantly reply to requests for touch upon the CSIS report.
In February, China mentioned it opposes Vietnam’s development actions on Barque Canada Reef, saying it was Chinese language territory.
In 2016, the Everlasting Courtroom of Arbitration within the Hague dominated that China’s South China Sea claims weren’t supported by worldwide regulation, a call Beijing rejects.
(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Enhancing by Daniel Wallis)
