Less progress has been achieved with regards to the disputes in the south china sea proper,i.e.the competing sovereignty claims to the paracel and spratly archipelagos as well as the overlapping maritime claims in the south china sea . talks have been initiated and since august 2009,the focus of the government-level talks over border issues is over the sea issues. Although talks continue all though, both parties have yet to agree on which disputes to be included on the agenda. Vietnam pushes for the inclusion of the paracels as an issue alongside that of the spratly,whereas china only wants to discuss the latter issue. To further complicate matters,china seems to view the disputes over water and continental shelf areas as part of the spratly conflict whereas Vietnam seems to view them as separated from that conflict. It seems as though Vietnam does not want to initiate take relating to the areas of overlapping claims in the south china sea proper as it would be interpreted as giving legitimacy to china’s claims to those areas. Thus ,of the three south china sea issues to be addressed by the two countries there is only agreement on putting one on the agenda for talks, namely the spratly archipelago,which is a multilateral conflict situation involving other claimants as well.