China’s recent illegal acts in the East Sea have seriously infringed onVietnam’s sovereignty, running counter to international law andpractices and damaging the trust from the world community.
China’s bringing of a massive oil rig – escorted by a fleet of military,police and fishing vessels – to Lot 143, an oil and gas field in Vietnam's exclusive economic zone, over the weekend is a barren violation ofVietnam’s sovereign right and jurisdiction over its exclusive economiczone and continental shelf.
To make things worse, the Chineseships used water cannons against and rammed into Vietnamese coastguard vessels, damaging them and injuring crew members.
Turning a deaf ear to the resultant outcry across Vietnam and theworld, including from many people within China, a Chinese officialbrazenly described the rig as “a Chinese border within the mobilenational territory of China”. This is against the Declaration of theConduct of Parties in the East Sea and the spirit of the 1982 UnitedNations Convention on the Law of the Sea to which China itself is amember.
Numerous countries from around the world, includingJapan, Singapore and the US, have voiced their concern over theescalation, describing the move as a provocation and a threat toregional stability.
The East Sea dispute has also become ahot topic in all corners of the world. Among many others, it madeheadlines in the US newswire Foreign Policy and the major Germannewspapers Die Welt, Die Zeit and Der Spiegel.
“Regardless of how much energy actually lies under the ocean, Beijing'sheavy-handed approach to regional relations and the damage it has causedcould hardly be worth tapping some extra barrels of oil for,” commentedHolly Morrow, an expert on the East Sea from Harvard University’sBelfer Center.
Vietnam will take all necessary and proper measures
Not only adversely affecting bilateral relations, China’s placementof the oil rig in Vietnam’s waters is viewed a confidence trick to thewhole ASEAN. It challenges the group’s Six-point Principle on the EastSea issue adopted in July 2012. Can such behaviour from Beijing buildamong ASEAN members the image of a trustworthy China? It poses a threatto the ongoing negotiations for a Code of Conduct of the Parties in theEast Sea (COC), which other nations are working tirelessly to finalise.
China’s act raises the question of whether it is attempting tomaterialise its self-imposed and irrational “nine-dot” territorial claimin the waters. Why does China keep on taking actions that aredetrimental to peace and stability in the East Sea? The question needsto be answered because this is not the first time that China hascommitted acts that further complicate dispute in the area. It is alsonot the first time our neighbour has approached the issue aggressively.It can be stated that such thoughts and actions are against the currentmainstream goals in the world for cooperation, mutual respect and mutualtrust building, which allow disputes to be settled peacefully to securethe balanced interests of concerned parties.
Vietnam has fulllegal and historical grounds to prove its sovereignty over Hoang Sa andTruong Sa archipelagos as well as its sovereign right and jurisdictionover its exclusive economic zones and continental shelf under provisionsof the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982.Vietnam submitted to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of theContinental Shelf, with its historical legal grounds proving itssovereignty over the Hoang Sa archipelago, in August 2009. China’sdeclaration of holding sovereignty over the archipelago, which itoccupied by force in 1974, is groundless.
Vietnam is doingits best to pursue dialogue to peacefully settle all disputes withChina, even when the situation has grown extremely tense. What has Chinadone to “persistently use amiable consultation to satisfactorily settlesea-related issues to turn the East Sea into a sea of peace, friendshipand cooperation”, as it agreed to do when it signed the Six-PointPrinciple on the Settlement of the East Sea Issue on October 11, 2011?The acts taken by China over the past days clearly have a negativeeffect on the political trust between the two countries and hurtVietnamese people.
Vietnam is a peace-loving nation. TheVietnamese nation has never knelt down before any hegemonic forces.Vietnam will take all necessary and proper measures to defend itslegitimate rights and benefits and safeguard its sovereignty.
For the Vietnamese nation, national sovereignty is supreme. No one hasthe right to violate Vietnam’s independence, sovereignty and territorialintegrity.-VNA
China’s bringing of a massive oil rig – escorted by a fleet of military,police and fishing vessels – to Lot 143, an oil and gas field in Vietnam's exclusive economic zone, over the weekend is a barren violation ofVietnam’s sovereign right and jurisdiction over its exclusive economiczone and continental shelf.
To make things worse, the Chineseships used water cannons against and rammed into Vietnamese coastguard vessels, damaging them and injuring crew members.
Turning a deaf ear to the resultant outcry across Vietnam and theworld, including from many people within China, a Chinese officialbrazenly described the rig as “a Chinese border within the mobilenational territory of China”. This is against the Declaration of theConduct of Parties in the East Sea and the spirit of the 1982 UnitedNations Convention on the Law of the Sea to which China itself is amember.
Numerous countries from around the world, includingJapan, Singapore and the US, have voiced their concern over theescalation, describing the move as a provocation and a threat toregional stability.
The East Sea dispute has also become ahot topic in all corners of the world. Among many others, it madeheadlines in the US newswire Foreign Policy and the major Germannewspapers Die Welt, Die Zeit and Der Spiegel.
“Regardless of how much energy actually lies under the ocean, Beijing'sheavy-handed approach to regional relations and the damage it has causedcould hardly be worth tapping some extra barrels of oil for,” commentedHolly Morrow, an expert on the East Sea from Harvard University’sBelfer Center.
Vietnam will take all necessary and proper measures
Not only adversely affecting bilateral relations, China’s placementof the oil rig in Vietnam’s waters is viewed a confidence trick to thewhole ASEAN. It challenges the group’s Six-point Principle on the EastSea issue adopted in July 2012. Can such behaviour from Beijing buildamong ASEAN members the image of a trustworthy China? It poses a threatto the ongoing negotiations for a Code of Conduct of the Parties in theEast Sea (COC), which other nations are working tirelessly to finalise.
China’s act raises the question of whether it is attempting tomaterialise its self-imposed and irrational “nine-dot” territorial claimin the waters. Why does China keep on taking actions that aredetrimental to peace and stability in the East Sea? The question needsto be answered because this is not the first time that China hascommitted acts that further complicate dispute in the area. It is alsonot the first time our neighbour has approached the issue aggressively.It can be stated that such thoughts and actions are against the currentmainstream goals in the world for cooperation, mutual respect and mutualtrust building, which allow disputes to be settled peacefully to securethe balanced interests of concerned parties.
Vietnam has fulllegal and historical grounds to prove its sovereignty over Hoang Sa andTruong Sa archipelagos as well as its sovereign right and jurisdictionover its exclusive economic zones and continental shelf under provisionsof the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982.Vietnam submitted to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of theContinental Shelf, with its historical legal grounds proving itssovereignty over the Hoang Sa archipelago, in August 2009. China’sdeclaration of holding sovereignty over the archipelago, which itoccupied by force in 1974, is groundless.
Vietnam is doingits best to pursue dialogue to peacefully settle all disputes withChina, even when the situation has grown extremely tense. What has Chinadone to “persistently use amiable consultation to satisfactorily settlesea-related issues to turn the East Sea into a sea of peace, friendshipand cooperation”, as it agreed to do when it signed the Six-PointPrinciple on the Settlement of the East Sea Issue on October 11, 2011?The acts taken by China over the past days clearly have a negativeeffect on the political trust between the two countries and hurtVietnamese people.
Vietnam is a peace-loving nation. TheVietnamese nation has never knelt down before any hegemonic forces.Vietnam will take all necessary and proper measures to defend itslegitimate rights and benefits and safeguard its sovereignty.
For the Vietnamese nation, national sovereignty is supreme. No one hasthe right to violate Vietnam’s independence, sovereignty and territorialintegrity.-VNA
