Parties requested to respect Vietnam’s sovereignty over Spratly islands
VOV.VN - Vietnam has requested that relevant parties respect Vietnam’s sovereignty over the Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago and not take actions to further complicate the situation,
The statement was made at Nguyen Duc Thang, deputy spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam, at a regular press briefing in Hanoi on March 28 following news about recent activities by China and the Philippines at Sandy Cay of the Spratly islands.
Vietnam has full legal basis and historical evidence asserting its sovereignty over the archipelago in accordance with international law, as well as sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction over the seas established in accordance with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, said Thang.
The fact that relevant parties allow people to land on entities under Vietnam’s sovereignty without its permission is a violation of Vietnam’s sovereignty, complicating the situation, going against the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) as well as countries’ ongoing efforts in negotiating the current Code of Conduct in the waters (COC), he emphasized.
