VN takes peaceful line on East Sea

HA NOI (VNS)— Viet Nam's consistent position on East Sea-related issues was that they should be resolved by peaceful means in accordance with international law, especially the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Deputy Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Ministry' National Border Committee Nguyen Duy Chien made the statement in Ha Noi yesterday. He was answering a reporter's question on Viet Nam's response to the Philippines' decision to take China to an arbitral tribunal in accordance with Article 287 and Annex VII of UNCLOS.

Viet Nam believed that countries had the right to choose peaceful measures to resolve disputes in line with the UN Charter and international law, including UNCLOS, Chien said.

He also responded to a question relating to the China National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geo-information's plan to publish the "National Map of China" and the "topographic map of China" in a new vertical format that will include the "nine-dashed line", also called the "cow tongue" line, islands, rocks and shoals in Viet Nam's Truong Sa (Spratly) and Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelagoes.

Chien affirmed Viet Nam's indisputable sovereignty over the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagoes as well as its sovereign right and jurisdiction over its exclusive economic zone and continental shelf in the East Sea under UNCLOS.

All maps featuring false information on Viet Nam's sovereignty over the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagoes, as well as its sovereign right and jurisdiction in the East Sea, were illegal and void, he stressed. — VNS