(Credit - @DigitalUpdateWL X handle)
ONGC Videsh is the overseas investment arm of India's top oil explorer, Oil and Natural Gas Corp.
As early as the 1970s, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, and China began to claim islands and various zones in the South China Sea, such as the Spratly Islands, which possess rich natural resources and fishing areas.
According to the United States, claimant countries, under the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), should have freedom of navigation through EEZs in the sea and are not required to notify claimants of military activities.
India has sparred diplomatically with China over its gas and oil exploration block off the coast of Vietnam. China claims the entire mineral-rich South China Sea and has stepped up its military presence there.
Indian energy company ONGC Videsh has announced that it has secured a three-year extension from Vietnam to explore 'Block 128' in the South China Sea.
Japan, which has no direct stake in the South China Sea, also provides ships and military equipment to claimants like Vietnam and the Philippines.
In recent years, satellite imagery has shown China's increased efforts to reclaim land in the South China Sea by physically expanding the island's size or creating new ones altogether. In addition to piling sand onto existing reefs, China has constructed ports, military installations, and airstrips—particularly in the Paracel and Spratly Islands, where it has twenty and seven outposts, respectively.
China has militarised Woody Island by deploying fighter jets, cruise missiles, and a radar system.
Most recently, Vietnam banned the upcoming Barbie film, due for release in July 2023, over its portrayal of a map that includes the nine-dash line.
