Vietnam Rejects South China Sea Claims Inconsistent with International Law: Spokesperson

The Fiery Cross Reef on Vietnam’s Truong Sa (Spratly) Archipelago is shown in this handout satellite image dated September 3, 2015 provided by CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative/Digital Globe. Photo : Reuters

The reaffirmation was made by foreign ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang when asked to comment on a Limits in the Seas study recently released by the US Department of State.

Vietnam recognises the US Department of State’s announcement of the study, the 150th in the Limits in the Seas series, Hang said.

On South China Sea (Bien Dong Sea) disputes, Vietnam has repeatedly affirmed its consistent and clear view that it always opposes and does not accept any claim inconsistent with international laws, including UNCLOS, Hang stressed.

"Vietnam once again asks relevant parties to respect Vietnam's sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction in the Bien Dong Sea, respect legal and diplomatic processes, implement active and substantive contributions to maintaining peace, stability, security, safety, freedom of maritime and aviation, the integrity of UNCLOS and rules-based order," Hang said, as cited by VnExpress.

Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Le Thi Thu Hang. Photo: baoquocte.vn

On January 12, the Department of State released the Limits in the Seas study on China’s maritime claims in the South China Sea.

The Department’s Limits in the Seas studies are a longstanding legal and technical series that examine national maritime claims and boundaries and assess their consistency with international law. This most recent study, the 150th in the Limits in the Seas series, concludes that China asserts unlawful maritime claims in most of the South China Sea, including an unlawful historic rights claim.

This study builds on the Department’s 2014 analysis of China’s ambiguous “dashed-line” claim in the South China Sea.

Since 2014, China has continued to assert claims to a wide swath of the South China Sea as well as to what China has termed “internal waters” and “outlying archipelagos,” all of which are inconsistent with international law as reflected in the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention.

With the release of this latest study, the US calls again on China to conform its maritime claims to international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention, to comply with the decision of the arbitral tribunal in its award of July 12, 2016, in The South China Sea Arbitration, and to cease its unlawful and coercive activities in the South China Sea, the Department said./.

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