ENERGY INSECURITY POSES THREAT TO REGIONAL PEACE

KUALA LUMPUR, June 4 (Bernama) – Energy insecurity poses a serious threat to
regional peace and security and has led to heightened tensions, especially in
the South China Sea, where rising "energy nationalism" and claims for
sovereignty over disputed islands and surrounding waters become intertwined.

Vietnam's Centre of Political and Security Studies' deputy director Khong
Thi Binh said energy security was also an issue of growing weight in the shaping
of relationships between emerging economies that were thirsty for energy and
resource-rich countries around the globe and also in key relationships in the
Asia-Pacific region like United States-China ties.

She said Asia-Pacific countries had been pursuing their individual
strategies of ensuring energy security based on their respective conditions and
stage of economic development.

"Although countries in the Asia-Pacific have developed their own energy
strategies for the 21st century, there is still room for regional cooperation,
particularly in the shared goal of diversifying energy resources through
bringing into use alternative energy such as nuclear and sharing experiences in
energy saving and conservation," she said.

She said this in her paper titled "Energy Security: Challenges and Policy
Options for the Asia Pacific Region" at the 23rd Asia-Pacific Roundtable
organized by the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS)
Malaysia here Wednesday.

Khong said given the low level of cooperation in the wider-region of the
Asia Pacific, it should begin at the sub-regional level like in Asean or the
Asean Plus Three (APT) framework.

She also said that the surge in energy demand for economic development had
implications for sustainable development when the exploitation of domestic
primary energy resources for economic growth continued to be a priority in
national energy strategy of a number of governments.

-- BERNAMA