China is threatening peace, stability, and freedom of navigation by illegally deploying a giant oil rig to Vietnamese waters in the East Vietnam Sea early this month, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said at a summit in Myanmar on Sunday.

The Vietnamese Prime Minister frankly condemned China’s aggressive acts in the East Vietnam Sea at the plenary session of the ASEAN Summit 2014, attended by leaders from the member states of the ten-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on May 11 morning.

In his speech, PM Dung spoke of China’s illicit deployment of oil rig HD 981 to Vietnam’s waters in the sea and Chinese vessels ramming as well as firing water cannons at Vietnamese ships, wounding many Vietnamese people.

The premier was referring to the fact that China has illegitimately operated the oil rig in a location of 15°29’58’’ North latitude and 111°12’06’’ East longitude in Vietnamese waters in the East Vietnam Sea since May 1, and deployed nearly 80 vessels including warships to guard the drilling platform.

This location is completely within Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf, about 119 nautical miles (221 km) from Ly Son Island off the central Vietnamese province of Quang Ngai and 18 nautical miles south of Tri Ton Island of Vietnam’s Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago, according to Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Le Hai Binh.

Many of the Chinese vessels intentionally crashed into Vietnamese ships when they were requested by the Vietnamese side to leave the waters, the Vietnamese Coast Guard announced at an international press conference in Hanoi on May 7.

To date,nine Vietnamese fisheries surveillance officers have been injured in such attacks by the Chinese ships.

The leader of the Vietnamese government said at the Myanmar summit that these extremely dangerous moves have been “directly threatening peace, stability, and maritime security and safety" in the East Vietnam Sea.

Vietnam has used all dialog channels to contact Chinese authorities to protest and request them to withdraw the oil rig as well as military ships from Vietnam’s waters but China has not only refused to do so but it "has [also] been slandering and blaming Vietnam while continuing to escalate its increasingly dangerous and serious acts of violation.”

This is the first time China has boldly planted an oil rig in a location lying well inside an ASEAN country’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf, PM Dung said, adding that the move "gravely violates the international law, the 1982 UNCLOS [United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea]" and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Vietnam Sea (DOC) "to which China is a signatory."

“This extremely dangerous action has been and is directly threatening peace, stability, and maritime security and safety in the East [Vietnam] Sea,” the premier asserted.

He then reiterated that peace, stability, security, marine and aviation safety and freedom in the East Vietnam Sea – which are the common interest of ASEAN and the world – “are under a serious threat.”

He said that Vietnam highly values the relationship with China but the Southeast Asian country “vehemently denounces acts of infringement and will resolutely protect [its] national sovereignty and legitimate interests in conformity with the international law.”

The Vietnamese prime minister also called for ASEAN member states, countries around the world, and international individuals and organizations to continue protesting China’s acts as well as supporting Vietnam’s legal stance.

Given the seriousness of the developments in the East Vietnam Sea, PM Dung suggested incorporating these issues into the chairman’s statement of the ASEAN Summit 2014.

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