Vietnam’s authorised agencies are tasked with firmly safeguarding the country’s sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction in the East Sea, Foreign Ministry Deputy Spokesperson Pham Thu Hang told reporters at a regular press conference in Hanoi on January 8.

She was responding to the reporters’ question regarding China’s drilling rig Haiyang Shiyou-981’s movement in international waters into the East Sea.

Hang said as a party to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982 UNCLOS), Vietnam has always fully implemented all of its rights and obligations in line with international law, contributing to peace, stability, security, freedom and safety of navigation in the East Sea.

The country pursues the consistent policy of solving East Sea issues by peaceful measures on the basis of internationally-recognised principles, especially the 1982 UNCLOS and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in East Sea (DOC).

She added Vietnam determinedly opposes acts that violate its sovereignty, sovereign right and jurisdiction in the waters.

China’s rig Haiyang Shiyou-981 was illegally positioned in Vietnam’s continental shelf and exclusive economic zone in early May, 2014 and then move out of Vietnam’s waters on July 16, 2014.

VNA