Viet Nam resolutely opposes Chinese survey vessel group Haiyang Dizhi 8’s continued serious violations of Viet Nam’s sovereignty right and jurisdiction in territorial waters as defined in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang has said.

A Vietnam Coast Guard ship is on mission around the DK1/15 oil rig. (Photo: VNA)

While answering reporters’ queries relating to Haiyang Dizhi 8’s return to Viet Nam’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf at a press conference on September 12, Hang said that Viet Nam has also pointed out adverse impacts of the vessel group’s violations on the friendship between the two countries, as well as peace, security and stability in the East Sea and the region.

“For those reasons, Viet Nam demands China to immediately stop its serious violations and withdraw all of the vessels from Viet Nam’s territorial waters,” she stressed.

Regarding China’s recent statements on Viet Nam’s economic activities in its territorial waters, the spokeswoman affirmed Viet Nam’s consistent viewpoints that all of its maritime economic activities, including oil and gas exploitation, have been carried out within Viet Nam’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf as defined from the land territory in line with the 1982 UNCLOS to which both Viet Nam and China are members.

Mrs Hang emphasised that the 1982 UNCLOS serves as the only legal basis for nations to determine their territorial waters as well as their rights to their territorial waters, which has been observed by countries, recognized by courts and supported by prestigious international lawyers.

Therefore, no country can give claims on waters in the East Sea that exceed geographical limitations and go beyond contents of the 1982 UNCLOS, she added.

Illegal and unsuitable claims which are unconformable to the 1982 UNCLOS cannot be used as the foundations to assert the existence of disputed and overlapped waters, the spokeswoman said.

These above-said acts that hinder Viet Nam’s oil and gas activities in its territorial waters are violating international law and the 1982 UNCLOS, Hang said.

The spokeswoman also reaffirmed Viet Nam’s stance on its sovereignty over Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagoes.

(Source: VNA)