Vietnam has presented its views and opinions related to the issue of better controlling the East Vietnam Sea situation and ensuring compliance with international law in order to ensure peace and stability in the sea area at a conference held in Malaysia on September 2-3, a Vietnamese official has said.   Nguyen Hung Son, Deputy Director General of the Institute for Foreign Policy and Strategic Studies, told Vietnam News Agency correspondents that Vietnam had brought forward such views at the 3rd East Sea conference held by the Maritime Institute of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur in the past two days. Compliance with international law by all parties in the East Vietnam Sea will help build strategic trust and reinforce cooperation, thus ensuring peace, stability and development in the sea, Son said. At the conference, some 160 scholars, researchers and diplomats from around 20 countries discussed the impacts of regional and international geo-politics on the East Sea, measures to increase cooperation on resource protection, security challenges in the East Sea, disputes and solutions, and measures to address challenges. Along with their counterparts from many other countries, including the US, China, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, experts from Vietnam also brought forward many specific proposals on how to sustainably exploit the East Vietnam Sea and promote the regional security and cooperation between countries in the region. All nations in the region should strengthen their relations to improve management of the sea and ensure peace and stability in these waters in the coming time, experts said. Addressing the event, the Director General of the Malaysian Foreign Ministry’s Department of Maritime Affairs, Zulkifli Adnan, emphasized the importance of the East Vietnam Sea for trade, navigation, resources and the environment, and touched upon the strategic factors affecting these waters. He said whenever a country acts violently in the East Sea, the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) unite in a common voice on the matter, such as the joint statement of ASEAN Foreign Ministers issued at their 47th meeting in Myanmar recently, or the acceleration of negotiations on a code of conduct of parties (COC) in these waters. He considered the agreement reached by ASEAN and China to soon conclude COC negotiations as a positive sign and stated that both sides need to hold on to this momentum.

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