Sebastian Strangio
Vietnamese construction work in the Spratly Islands continues to move forward, with “potential military structures” including runways taking shape on several of its outposts in the archipelago, a U.S. think tank said this week.
In a briefing released on Wednesday, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) stated that the ongoing developments show that Vietnam is “determined to maximize the strategic potential of the features it occupies” in the South China Sea.
AMTI, which is run by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., confirmed an earlier report by Radio Free Asia (RFA) that Vietnam was building a runway on Barque Canada Reef, the largest feature that it controls in the Spratly Islands. Following recent land reclamation works, RFA reported, the island now stretches over a length of 4.5 kilometers, “making it possible to develop an airstrip of 3,000 meters or more.”
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