A Vietnamese representative at the United Nations has called on nations to join hands in building up the effective management of maritime resources, ensuring food security in each country.

The head of the Vietnamese delegation to the ongoing UN consultative meeting on oceans and sea law in New York suggested technology transfer in the field of seafood exploitation from developed to developing countries.

At the 15th meeting of the UN open-ended informal consultative process on oceans and the law of the sea on May 27-30, the Vietnamese representative highly valued topics for discussions, stressing the important role of seafood to food security, especially for long coastal states with a large population like Vietnam.

According to the UN reports, seafood output, including catches and aquaculture, have seen a considerable increase, contributing to ensuring global food security. However, the seafood industry has faced challenges caused by climate change, pollution, population growth and illegal fishing.

To minimise negative impact and ensure sustainable growth of seafood output, delegates said that countries should increase connectivity, such as exchanges of information and technology transfer.

Also on this occasion, the Vietnamese head delegate made known the latest tensions caused by China in the East Sea which seriously affect legitimate fishing activities of Vietnamese fishermen.

Since early May, many Vietnamese fishing boats have been repeatedly attacked and seriously damaged by Chinese vessels. Most recently, on May 26, China’s vessels rammed and sank a Vietnamese boat, with 10 fishermen on board, while it was operating in its traditional fishing ground.

At the beginning of May, China illegally dispatched the Haiyang Shiyou-981 rig, as well as a large fleet of armed vessels, military ships and aircraft, to Vietnam’s waters and positioned the rig at 15 degrees 29 minutes 58 seconds north latitude and 111 degrees 12 minutes 06 seconds east longitude. The location is 80 miles deep inside Vietnam’s continental shelf and exclusive economic zone.

On May 27, China moved the rig to a new location 23 nautical miles from the old site. With the move, China has kept on violating Vietnam’s sovereign right and jurisdiction.

Chinese ships have repeatedly rammed and fired water cannons into Vietnamese coast guard and fisheries surveillance ships which are carrying out their law enforcement missions in the country’s waters, leaving many Vietnamese ships damaged and many fisheries surveillance officers injured.-VNA