Vietnam denounced the recent terrorist attacks in Egypt that claimed many lives and left many other people injured, Vietnamese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Le Hai Binh said on July 9.

In response to reporters’ question concerning the attacks on five security checkpoints and a police station in the town of Sheikh Zuweid in northern Sinai Peninsula on July 1, Binh said: “We believe the attackers must be punished justly.”

Binh continued that Vietnam would like to extend deep sympathy and condolences to the Government and people of Egypt and families of the victims.

Binh also said that as a country directly involved in the East Sea dispute, Vietnam would send a delegation to attend the hearing on the jurisdiction of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in the capacity of an observer.

The hearing, conducted at the Peace Palace in The Hague, the Netherlands from July 7, involves the above-said court’s jurisdiction, in line with Appendix VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The suit carried the code of PCA Case No 2013-19.-VNA