Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lê Hải Bình |
HÀ NỘI – Việt Nam wants all countries to make constructive contributions to maintaining peace, stability and the rule of law at sea and on the ocean, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lê Hải Bình said yesterday.
Bình was responding to reporters’ questions about the US’s USS Decatur navy destroyer sailing near Việt Nam’s Hoàng Sa (Paracel) archipelago on October 21.
“First and foremost, Việt Nam affirms that the country has full historical evidence and legal foundations to prove its sovereignty over Hoàng Sa and Trường Sa (Spratly) archipelagoes,” he said.
As a coastal country on the East Sea (also known as South China Sea) and a responsible member of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982 UNCLOS), Việt Nam respects other nations’ exercise of their rights in the sea in accordance with the convention’s provisions, including the freedom of navigation and flight, he added.
Maritime claims and related actions by all nations should follow international law, including the 1982 UNCLOS, Bình stressed. — VNS