VOV.VN - Vietnam on April 29 rejected China’s unilateral fishing ban in waters that include parts of Vietnam’s Tonkin Gulf and Hoang Sa (Paracel) islands in the East Sea.

International public opinion has criticized the Coast Guard Law of China, saying that China uses the law to legalise its coast guard force’s use of violence to serve the country’s unilateral sovereignty claim in the East Sea (also known as the South China Sea).

Deputy Foreign Minister and head of the Vietnam ASEAN SOM Nguyen Quoc Dung attended the 23rd ASEAN-India Senior Officials’ Meeting via a videoconference on April 28.

VOV.VN - Pham Quang Hieu, assistant to the Foreign Minister and Dato' Amran Bin Mohamed Zin, deputy secretary general for Bilateral Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Malaysia, on April 28 co-chaired the second version of the Senior Officials' Strategic Dialogue via an online platform.

Vietnam and China held their seventh defence strategy dialogue at the deputy ministerial level in Dongxing city in the Chinese province of Guangxi on April 23.

VOV.VN - A Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on April 8 Vietnam is following with keen interest the latest developments in the Whitsun Reef of Vietnam’s Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago where China has deployed vessels.

VOV.VN - Senior officials of ASEAN member states called on parties concerned to refrain from further actions to complicate the situation in the South China Sea known as the East Sea in Vietnam, during their videoconference on April 7.

Vietnamese Ambassador to the US Ha Kim Ngoc held phone talks with Ami Bera, a Democratic congressman representing California and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and Nonproliferation at the House Foreign Affairs Committee, on April 5.

Japan is deeply concerned about China’s repeated incursion into the South China Sea (called the East Sea in Vietnam) and Japanese-administered Senkaku islands in the East China Sea, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi told his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi during a telephone call on April 5.

Canada opposes recent actions taken by China in the East Sea, Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines Peter MacArthur said in a tweet, noting that such actions escalate tensions and undermine regional stability and the rules-based international order.