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News - Saturday, 28 Nov 2009
PRIO activities in Hanoi
Stein Tønnesson launches book
Stein Tønnesson (Research Professor and former Director at PRIO) is in Hanoi (Vietnam) during the international conference The South China Sea: Cooperation for Regional Security and Development 26-27 november 2009. His new book is being launched in Hanoi 30 November.
Conference
Stein Tønnesson led a panel and contributed with a talk at the conference, which was organized by Vietnam Lawyers Association and Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam. This is the first time an international conference on the conflict in the South China Sea has been organized in a South East Asian country. Several participants compared the event with the conference held in Oslo in June 2000, wrapping up the South China Sea project Tønnesson then led at SUM (Centre for Development and the Environment at the University of Oslo).
Tønnesson's talk in Hanoi was entitled "Can the Disputes over Maritime Delimitation and Sovereignty to Islands in the South China Sea be Resolved?" As opposed to most other participants at the conference, Tønnesson claims that a solution is possible, and warns against searching for oil offshore before agreement has been reached on the drawing of borders between the continental shelves of the countries in the region. For those mastering Vietnamese, here is local media response to Tønnesson's views.
Book Launch
Following the conference, the Norwegian Embassy in Hanoi has invited fifty guests, mainly diplomats and Vietnamese scholars for a lunch 30 November, launching Stein Tønnesson's book Vietnam 1946: How the War Began (University of California Press, 2010).
Tønnesson presents the book by describing the dramatic events leading up to the 6 March Treaty between France and Vietnam in 1946, and then the outbreak of war in Hanoi 19 December. This was the starting point for 30 years of war. |
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