Topic: Territorial Dispute in the South China Sea
Country: Saudi Arabia
Delegate Name: Danielle Falling
School: Forest Hills Northern High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Saudi Arabia position papers GLIMUN 2015 committees
The South China Sea has been an area that has been claimed and utilized by a number of Nations historically, and now. The sea is used for trade routes and may contain notable amounts of natural resources, mainly oil, that add an additional desirability to the disputed areas. The desires of nations surrounding the sea claiming contrary ownerships has led to mounting conflict in the area in recent years. The necessity for peace in the waters is a given, however even with the actions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea there is still work to be done. In recent years there has been a militarization of the multitudes of islands and shoals, which are smaller and uninhabitable areas, this is alarming and should be further addressed.
Saudi Arabia, though not having a direct play in the territories of the South China Sea, does have a large part in the oil markets. Saudi Arabia has been supplying large amounts of oil to the world and is a member of OPEC, and thus understands the role of the bountiful natural resource is often strong in any territory disputes where oil is speculated to be present. The necessity to understand that this issue is not only pertaining to the current trade routes or militarization of the territories, but rather could have, and has had, a lasting and extremely large influence on the economies of the nations directly affected, namely the Philippines, Vietnam, China, Indonesia, and Brunei. And as with any high tension economic issue as much knowledge about what is being disputed over that is possible to be known should be granted, the presumed fruitfulness of the sea may infact lead to further mismatched claims if not properly assessed.
The prospect of violence in these areas should not be tolerated and further measures to ensure nonviolence should be taken. Any actions taken of course, should respect Nation's claims validated by the an outside construct, such as the ones for Exclusive Economic Zones as addressed in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Sovereign bodies that are claiming this land should have the right to utilize, control, and maintain the waters in which they preside. Furthermore, there Saudi Arabia maintains that there should be an organized system and clear locations of the territories soully claimed by one body that do not overlap and are recognized by all participants who could claim to have a stake in the area. Another venue for additional solutions that may be idealistic, but with the cooperation of the surrounding bodies could come to a fruitful end, is the capacity for certain sectors of claimed sea to be used by multiple entities so to avoid the high stakes game that is often played with land disputes. Saudi Arabia hopes that our committee will work together to promote peace in the South China Sea while delicately making sure to satisfy larger and smaller nations in their goals of attaining access to this area.
