Vietnam has been building small islands in the South China Sea (Image: GETTY)
The country has placed its construction in the Spratly Islands near its mainland coast to prevent criticism, the New Delhi Times reported. They have slowly added buildings on 10 major islets since 2017, according to the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative. The US Centre for Strategic and International Studies also tracked new communications equipment, a sports field and the extension of a runway from 750 metres to 1,300 metres.
Vietnam’s construction is widely seen as defensive, the New Delhi Times reported.
The country, which belongs to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), is known for working out any bilateral differences.
Professor Alan Chong, of S Rajaratnam School of International Studies told the news outlet: “They’ve never had a standoff with any other country because all the other claimants have respectfully kept to their developable spheres around the South China Sea.
“I think there’s this intra-ASEAN consensus, that within ASEAN the claimants do not rock the boat so as to present a common front towards
