More than 100 scholars and researchers from Vietnam and some European countries gathered at a workshop held at the University of Warsaw, Poland, on May 24 to introduce their studies on the East Sea and help enhance overseas Vietnamese (OV) and international friends’ knowledge about the sea.

The event, attracting scholars and researchers from Poland, Hungary, France, Germany and Vietnam, also aimed to help make objective assessments of the East Sea situation in terms of natural, economic, political and social conditions, and call on EU countries and international organisations to support and sponsor scientific research cooperation projects relating to the East Sea.

In his speech, Nguyen Manh Dong, Vice Chairman of the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese, said as a coastal country having sovereignty over Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagoes and as a party to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Vietnam has been promoting cooperation in various spheres as well as in bilateral, regional and multilateral aspects in line with international law, especially the 1982 UNCLOS, for the sake of peace, security, stability, cooperation, and development.

OVs around the world have contributed much to the safeguarding of the Fatherland’s sacred sea and island sovereignty, he noted.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Poland Ha Hoang Hai stressed the Vietnamese Party and State’s consistent and clear policy of resolutely and persistently struggling to defend Vietnam’s sovereignty and legal and legitimate interests at sea, proactively and actively resolving East Sea-related disputes and differences by peaceful means on the basis of international law, particularly the 1982 UNCLOS, and maintaining peace, stability and cooperation for development.

A photo exhibition on Vietnam’s sea and islands also took place within the framework of the event.

The workshop was held by the liaison board of Vietnamese people in Europe, the Vietnamese People’s Association in Poland, and the Vietnam Association of Science and Technology in Poland with support from the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Vietnamese Embassy in Poland, and the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam./.VNA