While Vietnam would welcome American warships sailing near the disputed islands, other Southeast Asian counties would be concerned about escalating militarisation.
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Dr Sam Bateman retired from the RAN as a Commodore and is now a Professorial Research Fellow at the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS) at the University of Wollongong in Australia.
His naval service included four ship commands, ranging from a patrol boat to guided-missile destroyer. He was awarded his PhD from the University of New South Wales in 2001 for a dissertation on 'The Strategic and Political Aspects of the Law of the Sea in East Asian Seas'. He has written extensively on defence and maritime issues in Australia, the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean.