The Australian Strategic Policy Institute, with support from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, hosted a conference on Maritime Confidence Building Measures in the South China Sea.

The conference was held on 11–13 August 2013 in Sydney.

It was attended by delegates from 16 countries and chaired by Mr Peter Jennings, Executive Director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

The conference objective was to develop proposals for prospective maritime confidence building measures (MCBMs) for the South China Sea.

The conference assessed the potential for increased maritime cooperation in the South China Sea in functional areas, such as...

The issues before this conference are important ones for Australia’s strategic policy.

Australia has no deeper national interest than helping to ensure that the great success story of our century — the economic transformation of Asia in the Asian Century.

And that means avoiding incidents and increases in tensions that can result in conflict, including in the South China Sea.

For Australia and the region, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

I congratulate the Australian Strategic Policy Institute on this initiative.

I welcome all the distinguished speakers and guests.

Together you represent the expertise and, I may say, the best aspirations...

I would like first of all to express my thanks for being invited to this conference. I think the conference is timely in view of the increasing problems in the South China Sea. I understand that the conference will be discussing functional cooperation related to, among other things, law enforcement activities, search and rescue operations, hydrographic surveys, humanitarian assistance, maritime safety, fisheries management, marine environmental protection, marine scientific research, and other subjects that may be related to these issues. I understand that we hope to be able to discuss possible procedures for avoiding and managing potential incidents that may take...

This paper provides an overview of the nature and types of maritime confidence building measures (MCBMs) and notes the importance of effective regimes for managing the maritime domain. It covers maritime and naval cooperation, obligations to cooperate, maritime regime-building, and the law of the sea.

Confidence building measures (CBMs) and preventive diplomacy are widely discussed in security discourse. CBMs can be military measures or broader initiatives encompassing almost anything that builds confidence and promotes dialogue between countries. They include formal and informal measures, whether unilateral, bilateral or multilateral, which contribute to a reduction in misperceptions and uncertainty.

Much discussion of...

This paper provides a summary of existing bilateral and multilateral maritime cooperative arrangements in the South China Sea (SCS). These include arrangements for law enforcement, countering piracy, search and rescue (SAR), fisheries management, naval cooperation and marine environmental protection. The paper also refers to some past initiatives that have failed to achieve their intended outcomes.

The principal challenge in the SCS is to build a stable maritime regime that provides for good order at sea, eases tensions and reduces the risk of conflict. The countries around the SCS have a long history of confrontation with relatively few examples of successful...

On 4 March 2006, six boghammers (fast patrol boats) from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) detached from a sunken crane which lies at the head of the North Arabian Gulf, just inside the Iranian side of the adjoining Iraqi territorial waters. The sunken crane was a well-known observation and staging post for the Iranian Navy and IRGCN, and was under continual surveillance by coalition forces belonging to Task Force 58. The boghammers split into three groups, increased speed to maximum, and executed a coordinated, multi-axis converging manoeuvre towards Iraqi territorial waters and the Kwar Abd Allah Oil Terminal...

We have for the past two decades been preoccupied with confidence building measures (CBMs) as building blocks for peace and security in the Asia–Pacific. We adopted this strategy of CBMs as the underpinning of cooperative security in the Asia–Pacific from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which had inherited from its predecessor, the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe, a legacy of CBMs from the 1975 Helsinki Final Act regime to the Vienna Document regime since 1990. In Track 1 and various Track 2 networks for the past two decades, we’ve proposed for the Asia-Pacific...

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, thank you Peter for the opportunity to talk to you tonight. It’s always a little awkward to come into a conference dinner cold and talk about a subject that you have been listening to people talk about all day and here you are trying to relax a little. I hope that I will not cover too much of the same ground that you have traversed so far—if I do think of it as reinforcement!

Firstly, I am not going to solely focus on the South China Sea. As important as it is, I think...

With the support of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, ASPI hosted the Maritime Confidence Building Measures in the South China Sea Conference in Sydney on 11–13 August 2013. The conference was attended by participants from 16 different member countries of the East Asia Summit. It was chaired by Mr Peter Jennings, Executive Director of ASPI. The objective of the conference was to develop proposals for prospective maritime confidence building measures (MCBMs) for the South China Sea (SCS).

In his opening address (included in this report), the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator the Hon Bob Carr...

The Sydney Conference on Maritime Confidence Building Measures (MCBMs) in the South China Sea was attended by 62 participants from 16 different member countries of the East Asia Summit. It was hosted by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI).

The objective of the conference was to develop actionable proposals for prospective MCBMs for the South China Sea (SCS). The conference assessed:

The potential for increased maritime cooperation in the SCS in functional areas, such as law enforcement, search and rescue (SAR), hydrographic surveying, humanitarian assistance, marine safety, fisheries, marine environmental protection, and marine scientific research; and

Possible procedures for avoiding...