The Vietnam-Cambodia Friendship Association (VCFA) has voiced strong protest against China’s unlawful and inhuman act of illegally placing its oil rig in Vietnam’s waters, demanding the country immediately withdraw the rig as well as all escort vessels out of the area.

In a statement issued at a conference held in Ho Chi Minh City on June 25, the VCFA criticised that China’s act violates Vietnam’s sovereign right and jurisdiction over its exclusive economic zone and continental shelf in the East Sea.

This runs counter to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, agreements reached between the two countries’ high-ranking officials and the jointly statement between China and ASEAN member nations on the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties (DOC), it said.

China’s move is dangerous and threatening security, navigation freedom in the sea as well as peace and stability in the region, the statement stressed, adding that this negatively impacts the Vietnam-China traditional relations.

The association requested China to stop its actions at sea against Vietnam’s law enforcement forces and refrain from preventing fishing activities by Vietnamese fishermen, and called on organisations, societies and friendship associations along with Chinese intellectuals to raise their voice against China.

It also expressed strong support for and belief in the policy and efforts of the Party and State in resolutely safeguarding the national sovereignty and solving territorial disputes in the East Sea through peaceful measures.

In early May, China illegally dispatched the rig as well as a large fleet of armed vessels, military ships and aircraft to Vietnam’s waters and positioned it at 15 degrees 29 minutes 58 seconds north latitude and 111 degrees 12 minutes 06 seconds east longitude, 80 miles deep inside Vietnam’s continental shelf and exclusive economic zone.

In May alone, 19 fisheries surveillance ships and five coast guard vessels of Vietnam were seriously damaged after being rammed and fired with water cannons while performing their mission demanding China withdraw its rig.

Particularly, on May 26, Chinese ships sank a fishing boat belonging to Da Nang fishermen operating in the traditional fishing grounds near Vietnam’s Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago.-VNA