Cooperation and Exchanges with Brunei

(1) China-Brunei Cooperation in Oil Spill Contingency Planned to Start

From February 28 to March 1, 2013, Vice Chief Salihin of the Maritime Department of the Ministry of Communications of Brunei and Director Rizal of Security and Environmental Protection Section of Maritime Department visited the North China Sea Branch of State Oceanic Administration. 

On February 28, the two sides discussed over China-Brunei cooperation in emergency relief of oil spill. The meeting was hosted by Vice Director General Wang Bin of the North China Sea Branch, and Chen Yue, Vice Director General of the Department of International Cooperation of SOA, as well as officials of North China Sea Branch and experts also attended. 

Director General Hong Fuzhong, on behalf of the North China Sea Branch, extended warm welcome to the delegation of the Ministry of Communications of Brunei, hoping that their visit would serve as a good start for bilateral cooperation in maritime environmental protection. 

Chen Yue, Vice Director General of International Cooperation Department of SOA pointed out that this visit was a vital step after the Deputy Administrator Chen Lianzeng's visit to the Ministry of Communications of Brunei in July 2012 and he wished a big success for the meeting. Vice Chief Salihin extended gratitude to the State Oceanic Administration and its North China Branch for their invitation and hospitality, and hoped that the two sides would strengthen exchanges and cooperation in protecting maritime environment and preventing major incidents of oil spill. Representatives of the North China Sea Branch briefed on its endeavors in environmental protection and oil drill planning, including supervision over offshore oil drilling and oil spill response, discrimination of oil spill, assessment of damages and restoration of waters and mines, the running of a mechanism for oil spill alarming and decision-making, the application of oil spill monitoring technologies, etc. Officials of the Ministry of Communications of Brunei introduced its roles in oil spill management and provided basic information of the National Oil Spill Contingency Plan. The two sides arrived at consensus for cooperation in the following four aspects, which were included in the meeting summary: oil spill motoring and assessment technologies; training and sharing of oil spill discrimination technologies; mechanism of forecast of oil drift and related decision-making and technologies of oil drift searching and relief; monitoring technologies for maritime oil platform and petrol vessels on oil spill. 

On March 1, officials of the Ministry of Communications of Brunei visited the North China Sea Monitoring Center, the North China Sea Forecast Center and the North China Sea Information Center to have a full knowledge of China's equipment and team in oil spill management. They spoke highly of the North China Sea Branch for its work in environmental protection and oil spill management. 

In the visits, the two sides had discussions on future cooperation model and the timetable for advancing such cooperation. 

The visit and its relevant meetings helped push forward outcomes achieved by the delegation of the State Oceanic Administration during its visit to Brunei last July, boost mutual understanding, and kick off bilateral cooperation in oil spill contingency management. 

(2) Deputy Administrator Chen Lianzeng Met with Hjh Hasnah Ibrahim, Deputy Secretary of Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources

On August 27, 2014, Deputy Administrator Chen Lianzeng of the State Oceanic Administration met in Xiamen with Ms. Hjh Hasnah Ibrahim, Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources, who attended the Fourth APEC Ocean-Related Ministerial Meeting. 

Deputy Administrator Chen first of all sent welcome to Deputy Secretary Hjh Hasnah Ibrahim, saying that China and Brunei had good cooperation in recent years. Particularly, new progress had been made in maritime cooperation. In 2012, Mr. Chen visited the Ministry of Communications of the Brunei and achieved consensus with Brunei in cooperation in oil spill research, the South China Sea tsunami alarming system, and the development of blue economy, etc. through in-depth discussion and exchanges with the minister and vice ministers of communications. Currently, the two countries had witnessed progress in oil spill research, and the Chinese side welcomed Brunei's participation in the construction of the tsunami alarming system in the South China Sea, joint exploration of the evolution of blue economy. It was hoped that Deputy Secretary Hjh Hasnah Ibrahim could report these messages to relevant departments of Brunei so that the two sides could sign an inter-governmental agreement on maritime cooperation at a proper time. 

Deputy Secretary Hjh Hasnah Ibrahim expressed gratitude to Deputy Administrator Chen for the invitation to the Fourth APEC Ocean-Related Ministerial Meeting, saying that Xiamen Declaration, to be passed, was a milestone step for APEC maritime cooperation, which met with welcome and support from Brunei. In recent years, bilateral cooperation had been strengthened with tremendous outcomes. She invited Deputy Administrator Chen to visit Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources for further discussions and changes in bilateral maritime cooperation.