Brunei: Transnational Issues & International Disputes

Transnational Issues

Brunei

Disputes - international:

Involved in dispute over the Spratly Islands with China, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam; Brunei established an exclusive economic fishing zone encompassing Louisa Reef in southern Spratly Islands in 1984 but makes no public territorial claim to the offshore reefs; claimants in November 2002 signed the "Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea", a mechanism to ease tension but which fell short of a legally binding "code of conduct"

Illicit drugs:

drug trafficking and illegally importing controlled substances are serious offenses in Brunei and carry a mandatory death penalty