Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung (right) receives Filipino Foreign Secretary Albert Del Rosario during his visit to Viet Nam. - VNA/VNS Photo Duc Tam
HA NOI (VNS) – The recent agressive and inhumane acts of China in violation of international law are worsening the East Sea situation, said Filipino Secretary of Foreign Affairs Albert F. Del Rosario yesterday in Ha Noi.
He also protested China’s placement of the Haiyang Shiyou-981 oil rig in Viet Nam’s waters and the use of force to harass Vietnamese law enforcement forces, fishery surveillance forces and fishermen.
Rosario, who is visiting Viet Nam at the invitation of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh, was meeting with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, who said countries with sovereignty claims over areas of the East Sea and ASEAN members needed to raise their voices to prevent China’s moving in.
Dung said that the measures needed were to call for international protests against China’s acts, taking the cases to international tribunals and asking China to follow the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea.
Rosario said China’s acts aimed at achieving its unilateral “nine-dot line”, adding that the Philippines had been working with the international community to force China to follow international law.
Prime Minister Dung and Rosario also talked about mutual co-operation potential, including politics, national defence, agriculture, fishery, culture, education and maritime co-operation.
Dung said the two countries needed to try their best to raise the relationship to a new and strategic height.
Earlier the same day, Rosario met Pham Binh Minh and discussed in detail co-operation within the ASEAN framework and on the East Sea issue.
They also issued a joint statement, in which they spoke of the need to follow international sea law, the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982 UNCLOS) and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea, which requires concerned parties to any dispute to handle it with peaceful measures.
They also emphasised the importance of an announcement on May 24 that asked China to stop violations of international laws and to start discussions that led to a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC). – VNS
Đăng ký: VietNam News
