China’s illegal placement
of its oil rig in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf will
be discussed at an annual dialogue on bilateral partnership this week, Foreign
Ministry’s Spokesman Le Hai Binh has said.
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Vietnamese people in Canada took to
the street protesting China's illegal oil rig placement
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Chinese State Councilor
Yang Jiechi will attend the dialogue between the Co-chairs of the Steering
Committee for bilateral cooperation, the spokesman said at an international
press conference in Hanoi on June 16.
Vietnam has exhausted all
dialogue channels with China to seek a peaceful solution to the current tension
in the East Sea , Binh stated.
Answering a reporter’s
question on Vietnam ’s evidence affirming its sovereignty over Hoang Sa
(Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagoes, Vice Chairman of the National
Boundary Commission (NBC) Tran Duy Hai said that legal documents from the
feudal period show that Vietnam ’s feudal states sent fleets to exploit and
perform tasks in the two archipelagoes in early date.
For a country that wishes
to set up its sovereignty over a territory, it must exercise activities of
sovereignty under the capacity of the State. The documents held by Vietnam are
legally recognised to affirm the country’s sovereignty over Hoang Sa and Truong
Sa, he stressed.
On a question raised that
China said during the French-ruled period, the French colonial administration
once recognised China’s sovereignty over Hoang Sa (called “Xisha” by China) and
Vietnam’s inheritance from the period’s documents is not true, Hai commented
that after entering in Vietnam, on behalf of the Vietnamese administration,
France exercised sovereignty over Hoang Sa and Truong Sa, and implemented its
administrative management at a high level, such as granting birth certificates
to those who were born there.
During the time, France
many times opposed China ’s actions in Hoang Sa, by sending diplomatic notes to
China , and proposing bringing the issue to an international jurisdiction
agency.
In its note sent to the
Chinese Embassy in Paris on February 18, 1937, France urged China to address
differences through amicable negotiations. “If China disagrees with that,
France will have no other way than settling the issue via an arbitrator,” it
said.
France always protested
China ’s schemes over Hoang Sa, Hai affirmed.
About the Chinese Foreign
Ministry’s June 13 request for Vietnam ’s withdrawal from 29 stone islands in
Truong Sa archipelago which it said Vietnam is illegally occupying, the NBC
representative said that China ’s demand is extremely unreasonable and Vietnam
completely rejects it.
Vietnam has sufficient
legal and historical evidence to affirm its sovereignty over Truong Sa. In
fact, the country has managed and exploited the archipelago in a peaceful and
uninterrupted manner.
“It is China that used
force to occupy some shoals belonging to Vietnam’s Hoang Sa archipelago. And
it’s China that has to withdraw itself from the shoals it illegally occupied in
1988,” Hai affirmed.
On queries raised on
whether foreign partners of the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PVN)
concerned about China’s illegal rig placement in Vietnam’s waters, Nguyen Quoc
Thap, PVN Deputy General Director, said his group had working sessions with US,
Russian, Canadian and Indian partners and gained their support for the stance
and statement of the group and the Vietnamese Government in the East Sea
issue.
They affirmed that the
operations of PVN and its associates in the area are legitimate and that they
will continue realising the agreements and contracts signed with PVN.
PVN plans to continue
working with its foreign partners in implementing its exploring and exploiting
activities in an effective manner, said Thap.
Source: VNA/VOV
