China requested to abide by Gulf of Tonkin maritime delimitation agreement
VOV.VN - Vietnam on March 14 requested that China comply with international law, including the 2000 Gulf of Tonkin maritime delimitation agreement between the two countries, after China recently announced a new baseline in the waters.
Vietnam and China signed the Agreement on the Delimitation of the Territorial Sea, Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf in the Gulf of Tonkin on December 25, 2000, which took effect on June 30, 2024.
At a regular press briefing in Hanoi on March 14, Pham Thu Hang, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affair of Vietnam, said expressed Vietnam’s viewpoint that coastal countries need to comply with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in establishing their baselines for measuring the breadth of the territorial sea, and ensure that those baselines do not affect the legitimate rights and interests of other States, including the freedom of navigation and the transit of passage through straits used for international navigation in accordance with the UNCLOS..
Vietnam requests that China respect and comply with the 2000 Agreement on the Delimitation of the Territorial Sea, Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf between the two countries in the Gulf of Tonkin, and the UNCLOS, Hang said.
Vietnam reserves all rights and legal interests under international law and reiterates its position expressed in the Statement dated 6 June 1996 of the Government of Viet Nam regarding the Declaration dated 15 May 1996 of the Chinese Government on the baselines for measuring the breadth of China’s territorial sea, added the spokesperson.
According to the spokesperson, Vietnam has exchanged views with China on this issue, and will continue to do so in the spirit of friendship, understanding and mutual respect.
