Vietnam affirms its consistent stance on PCA ruling on East Sea
VOV.VN - The nation advocates for the settlement of disputes over sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction in the South China Sea, known locally as the East Sea, through relevant diplomatic and legal processes.
Le Thi Thu Hang, spokeswoman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, made the statement on July 8 in reply to a reporter’s question regarding the country’s view on the fifth anniversary of the Permanent Court on Arbitration (PCA)'s final decision on the South China Sea issue.
The nation’s stance on the settlement of East Sea-related disputes remains both clear and consistent. The country supports the non-use and non-threat of the use of force, whilst hoping to solve the issue via peaceful means and solutions in accordance with the UN Charter and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
As a UNCLOS signatory and a coastal nation to the East Sea, the nation therefore requests that all relevant parties fully respect and fulfill their legal obligations under the Convention. This should be done whilst co-operating with others in order to make active and practical contributions to the maintenance of peace, stability, security, safety, freedom of navigation and aviation, and order in the East Sea based on international law, the spokesperson said.
As part of the occasion, the country also reaffirmed its principled stance on the issue of sovereignty over the Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagoes, along with territorial waters under Vietnamese sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction as defined in the UNCOLOS.