Vietnam asks China to respect bilateral agreements on Gulf of Tonkin

BANGKOK: Vietnam asked China to respect bilateral territorial agreements on the Gulf of Tonkin and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, reported Sputnik.

The statement was made at a briefing in Hanoi on Thursday by Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Pham Thu Hang in response to a question from journalists about China’s recently declared new baseline, defining Chinese territorial waters, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone, and the boundaries of the sea shelf, including in the Gulf of Tonkin.

Pham Thu Hang asked to comply with the agreement signed in December 2000 between the two countries on the division of territorial zones in the Gulf of Tonkin.

All coastal countries should comply with the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, she also said.

“Viet Nam has been and will continue to discuss our positions with China on this matter, in a spirit of friendship, mutual understanding, and mutual respect,” the spokeswoman said as quoted by the Viet Nam News portal.

She said Vietnam reserves its lawful rights and interests under international law.

Vietnam “reserves its lawful rights and interests in accordance with international law as well as its position as mentioned in the statement on June 6, 1996, made by the Government of Viet Nam, pertaining to the statement made by the Government of China on May 15, 1996, which announced the baseline used to calculate the width of China’s territorial sea,” Hang said.

“In every diplomatic relationship, including between Viet Nam and China, the differences between the two countries will be discussed,” she said when asked if the new announcement from China would affect bilateral cooperation in general and the Gulf agreement in particular.

The Gulf of Tonkin in the South China Sea, rich in energy and commercial resources, is of great strategic and economic importance for both Vietnam and China, whose shores it washes.