Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines Teodoro Locsin. — Photo rappler.com)

NEW YORK — Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines Teodoro Locsin expressed thanks to Việt Nam for saving 22 crewmembers aboard a fishing vessel in distress in the East Sea during a recent ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in New York. 
In his speech, he said he is forever grateful to Việt Nam for its humanitarian act. 
According to him, 22 fishermen were abandoned in the sea until a passing Vietnamese fishing boat rescued them. 
Earlier, their Philippine fishermen’s vessel was sunk by a Chinese boat at the Reed Bank in Việt Nam’s Trường Sa (Spratly) archipelago on June 9. 
The case highlights the importance of moral and legal terms as mentioned in Article 33, the UNCLOS, as well as the International Maritime Organisation’s International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, he said. 
On the occasion, he called on UN member states to not say words about international conventions but to enforce them in real life. — VNS