The Vietnam Bar Federation (VBF) has voiced objection over China's violation of Vietnam's sovereignty in the East Sea, and promised legal support to Vietnam in the face of ongoing tensions with its neighbour.
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| The overview at the meeting |
The Vietnam Bar Federation (VBF) has voiced objection over China’s violation of Vietnam’s sovereignty in the East Sea, and promised legal support to Vietnam in the face of ongoing tensions with its neighbour.
In a statement released at the end of a meeting in Hanoi on May 11, the VBF asked the Chinese government to immediately stop violating Vietnam’s sovereign right and jurisdiction over its exclusive economic zone and continental shelf. Concurrently, China must withdraw its oil rig and fleet of military and escort ships from the area without delay, and avoid similar actions in the future.
China is seriously violating basic principles of international law and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, betraying its commitment to both the ASEAN Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea and bilateral agreements reached by the two nations’ leaders, the VBF statement read.
Not only threatening peace and security in the East Sea, the act and China’s self-imposed “nine-dot” territorial claim are undermining global peace and maritime security in Southeast Asia and the Asian-Pacific region, it said.
The lawyers called on their counterparts and scholars on the East Sea all over the world to protest China’s actions.
They also urged Chinese citizens and lawyers, as well as peace-loving people around the world, to side with Vietnam in this dispute, adding it is important to protect international law and justice whilst maintaining peace, stability and maritime freedom in the East Sea and the Asian-Pacific region as a whole.
(Source:VNA)
