Hanoi seminar spotlights PCA’s East Sea ruling

Hanoi (VNA) – A seminar was held in Hanoi on August 16, focusing on dissecting the content of the recent ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague, the Netherlands, on the Philippines’s lawsuit against China’s claims in the East Sea.

The activity aimed to make it easy for historians to make studies of the advantages and difficulties facing Vietnam in safeguarding national sea and island sovereignty, thus giving relevant advice to Party and State leaders, towards effectuating activities that raise public awareness of national sea and island sovereignty protection and measures to ensure security at sea.

Deputy Foreign Minister Dang Dinh Quy briefed the gathering on the legal concept concerning disputes and types of disputes in the East Sea in accordance with international law, while detailing the contents of the ruling.

According to Tran Viet Thai, Deputy Director of the Strategic Research Institute of the Foreign Ministry, on the legal aspects, the lawsuit has clarified the actions made by China in the East Sea over the last three years, which changed the status quo of the sea.

The lawsuit creates a crucial and permanent foundation for involved parties to define the rights of relevant parties and seek to solve East Sea disputes.

Participants heard that the East Sea dispute is not merely the sovereignty dispute or a regional security-related issue, but about global governance concerning big countries and regulations of international law.

The East Sea issue is just at the stage of conflict management and confidence-building, rather than going to the next stage to determine rights of parties and find the final solution to the issue, Thai said.-VNA