HANOI, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Vietnam has been ramping up its dredging and landfill work in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, creating another 330 acres of land since December last year, a U.S. think tank said in a report.
The expansion, much larger than 120 acres it had created between 2012 and 2022, made Vietnam second only to China in terms of island buildup in the Spratly Islands, Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said in the report this week, citing satellite imagery.
The sea is one of the world’s most contested waterways, where more than $3 trillion of trade passes each year.
China, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have lodged competing claims for some or all of the Spratly Islands.
The recent expansion by Vietnam was the most noticeable at Barque Canada Reef, called Bai Thuyen Chai in Vietnam, where the report, produced by CSIS’s Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), said 210 acres of land was created in the past year.
It said Vietnam’s efforts have remained focused on dredging and landfill, with construction of infrastructure yet to begin.
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