On June 26, at the regular press conference of the Foreign Ministry, the Foreign Ministry Spokesman Le Hai Binh said that while China’s Haiyang Shiyou-981 oil rig together with a large number of its planes and vessels is still operating in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone, China has complicated further when it has announced to bring its Nanhai 09 oil rig to the new position in the waters off the undefined Tonkin Gulf between Vietnam and China.
Mr. Binh said that according to international law, not any side is allowed to explore and exploit in the undefined area. So, this act of China has worried international and Viewtnamese public opinion.
On the other hand, in recent time, China has carried out a series of operation such as issuing China’s topographic map and the map of the People’s Republic of China, showing the Bull Tongue-shaped line covering the almost all the Tonkin Gulf and Vietnam’s Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagoes.
Mr. Le Hai Binh has time and again affirmed Vietnam’s standpoint of the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagoes and resolutely protested and demanded the Chinese side to stop immediately these above-said wrong acts and seriously observe international law and the Declaration of the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea.
The Foreign Ministry Spokesman pointed out that Vietnam resolutely protests and demands China to stop immediately the above-said actions and never have such similar action in the time to come and observe international law.
On June 23, while Vietnam’s fisheries surveillance ship is operating in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone, only 11.5 nautical miles from the Haiyang Shiyou-981 oil rig, it was encircled and rammed into, causing heavy damage to the Vietnamese ship. This is the especially dangerous action. Vietnam has resolutely protested and demanded China to stopp immediately its similar actions and observe international law.
Mr. Le Hai Binh stressed that all the countries in the region, in the ASEAN region as well as the countries outside having their interests in the Bien Dong have proposed that this tension should not make any negative impact on the safety and freedom of navigation. That China has illegally placed its oil rig in Vietnam’s waters with the escort of a great number of ships and planes has seriously affected security and safety of navigation of the region./.
