 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Hanoi (AFP) May 12, 2011 Vietnam's parliamentary elections are an internal matter, the government said Thursday after Beijing objected to the ballot being held on disputed islands in the South China Sea. The two countries have a long-standing dispute over sovereignty of the Paracel archipelago and the more southerly Spratlys, both of which are in potentially energy-rich areas and straddle strategic shipping lanes. "The holding of elections in the Spratlys is the internal affair of Vietnam," and they have been conducted for many years, foreign ministry spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga told reporters. Vietnam on May 22 holds nationwide elections for its communist-controlled National Assembly but because of logistical difficulties balloting takes place earlier in some remote areas such as the disputed islands. On Tuesday China called the election an infringement of its sovereignty. "Any one-side action taken by any country on the Nansha Islands is illegal and invalid," Beijing's foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said, according to the state Xinhua news agency, using the Chinese name for the Spratlys. The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan also claim all or part of the Spratlys, and China's increasingly assertive role in the area has raised tensions, including with the United States.
earlier related report Russian gas giant Gazprom and the China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) in 2009 signed a framework agreement which could eventually see 70 billion cubic metres of Russian natural gas sent to China. "As far as the contract to supply gas to China is concerned, the work on it is ongoing and of course we would like this work to be completed before the forum starts," the Kremlin's top economic adviser Arkady Dvorkovich told reporters. Russia hosts a top investor forum in the former imperial capital Saint Petersburg on June 16-18 scheduled to be attended by China's Hu Jintao. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Finnish President Tarja Halonen and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono are also expected to be in attendance. Russia has in recent years sought to align itself more closely with China as it seeks to unlock new energy markets in Asia. It said last year it hoped to clinch the gas deal with China by mid-2011, with first deliveries to start in 2015. The talks have been mired in pricing differences however, with Chinese officials saying in November that differences between the two sides were 100 dollars for 1,000 cubic metres.
Share This Article With Planet Earth
Related Links Powering The World in the 21st Century at Energy-Daily.com
Norway's DNO says to finally be paid for Kurdish oil exportsOslo (AFP) May 11, 2011 Norwegian oil firm DNO, among the first to operate in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein, said Wednesday it would finally receive payment for crude oil exports from the Kurdish area of Iraq. The overdue payment is made possible by a recent agreement between Baghdad and Kurdish authorities. "A first cash advance to DNO of 110 million dollars has now been confirmed by the Kurdistan Regi ... read more |
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2010 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |
del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
YahooMyWeb
Google
Facebook
