‘Proactive diplomacy’ in Mekong River dispute only way to resolve brewing conflict
The ferocity of rows over vital sea lines carrying up to a third of global trade valued at US$5 trillion annually has embittered relations between China and some Southeast Asian claimant states. Meanwhile, external powers such as the United States have jumped into the fray, seeking to keep China’s maritime ambitions in check. While the prevailing narrative tends to be that the South China Sea increasingly has become the main theatre of hegemonic competition between superpowers, this view tends to miss Asia’s other brewing water conflict in the Mekong Delta.
Richard Heydarian
