Vietnamese authorities at sea have been exercising the country’s sovereignty, sovereignty rights and jurisdiction in a peaceful and lawful manner to safeguard its waters, the Vietnamese foreign ministry has stated, amid reports on a standoff with Chinese naval forces in disputed South China Sea waters.
Officers of the Vietnam Coastguard on mission. Photo: Nguyen Huy/Tien Phong newspaper
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Therefore, all activities undertaken by foreign parties in Vietnamese waters must comply with relevant provisions of the UNCLOS and Vietnamese laws. Without Vietnam’s permission, all actions undertaken by foreign parties in Vietnamese waters have no legal effect, and constitute encroachments in Vietnamese waters, and violations of international law and the UNCLOS,” the ministry’s Spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang said on Tuesday in response to the question of journalists related to recent developments in the South China Sea.
The ministry’s statement did not mention which “recent developments” were.
South China Morning Post on July 12 cited a tweet by Ryan Martinson, an assistant professor at the US Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, as saying that a Chinese oil exploration ship Haiyang Dizhi 8 (Marine Geology 8), escorted by heavily-armed coastguard vessels, entered Vietnam’s waters near the Spratly Islands.
The spokesperson affirmed Vietnam’s consistent position to resolutely and persistently stand against any act infringing upon Vietnam’s sovereignty, sovereignty rights and jurisdiction in Vietnamese waters established in the provisions of the UNCLOS through peaceful means in accordance with international law and the UNCLOS.
“On this basis, Vietnam has been implementing a comprehensive range of peaceful measures for addressing issues, and staunchly demanding parties to respect Vietnam’s waters and Vietnam’s legitimate rights and interests in its waters and to refrain from acts that would further complicate the situation,” said the spokesperson.
