At the conference (Source: vov.vn)Moscow (VNA) – China’s “nine-dash line” claim and continued construction of artificial islands on the East Sea are escalating tension and destroying trust between nations in the region, said Boris Vinogradov, Editor-in-chief of Russian-based “Multipolar World” on March 23.
Vinogradov made his statement at an international conference on territorial conflicts and the law of peace in the era of globalisation, in Moscow the same day.
Held by the Russian Academy of Justice, the Department of Constitutional and Municipal Law at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, and the Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAN), the conference focused on territorial disputes on the East Sea, Caspian Sea and North Pole.
It discussed the latest developments in the East Sea during the opening session, notably China’s effort to build man-made islands and runways, conduct test flights and deploy surface-to-air missiles in the sea.
Experts and scholars at the event expressed serious concerns over China’s growing militalisation of the East Sea and suggested solutions to the issue.
In his speech on new security challenges in the East Sea, Prof. Dmitry V. Mosyakov from the RAN’s Institute of Eastern Studies pointed out that China will not stop its wrongful actions but continue its military moves in Vietnam’s Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) Islands in an attempt to dominate the sea.
Meanwhile, Prof. Grigory M. Lokshin, an expert at the RAN’s Institute of Far Eastern Studies, criticised China’s groundless claim of nine-dash line (a U-shaped boundary line in the East Sea claimed as its territory), as well as attacks on Vietnamese fishermen.
However, he noted that Vietnam and China should settle the territorial disputes through negotiations, stressing the need to end any unilateral actions that may lead to armed conflict.
Irina A. Umnova from the Russian Academy of Justice recommended several legal mechanisms to solve maritime disputes and urged the ASEAN nations to reach a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) as quickly as possible.-VNA
