Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung hosted a reception in Hanoi on July 2 for Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Albert F. del Rosario, who is on a Vietnam visit under an invitation of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh.
At the meeting, the Philippine Secretary said his visit aims to deploy initiatives and agreement reached during Dung’s visit to the Philippines on May 21-22. He discussed in depth with PM Dung measures to consolidate and deepen bilateral cooperation, particularly in politics, economics, security, defence, agriculture, fisheries and education. PM Dung urged the two countries to take more efforts to lift bilateral ties to a new height towards a strategic partnership, and asked the two foreign ministries to work together to achieve that goal. Regarding the East Sea issue, the guest said that the recent aggressive and inhumane acts of China in violation of international law are worsening the East Sea situation. In particular, China’s illegal placement of the Haiyang Shiyou-981 rig in Vietnam’s waters in early May as well as its use of force and threat to use force against Vietnamese law enforcement forces and fishermen have seriously infringed international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), Rosario said. According to him, these acts aim to assert and realise the “nine-dot line” illegally claimed by China and expand its illegal sovereignty in reality. He noted that the Philippines has and will continue coordinating with the international community to take measures and actions to force China to abide by international law. For his part, PM Dung said that nations holding sovereignty over the East Sea and ASEAN member countries have no other way than to unite in the fight to stop China’s violations of international law and other countries’ sovereignty, even bringing the case to international tribunals. He also stressed the need to call on the international community to raise their voice in opposing China’s acts and demanding China immediately stop all aggressive acts and violations of international law and the DOC, seriously abide by the DOC and work with ASEAN towards the forming of a Code of Conduct in the East Sea.-VNA
