A Chinese survey ship has returned to Vietnamese waters in the East Vietnam Sea and again engaged in a violation of Vietnam’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and Continental Shelf, the foreign ministry’s spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang said on Friday.

In response to reporters’ questions regarding the violations of Vietnam’s EEZ and Continental shelf by the Chinese survey ship Haiyang Dizhi 8 and its escort vessels, Hang said information available to the ministry shows that the ships resumed their violation of Vietnamese waters on August 13.

“This area lies entirely within the Vietnamese waters,” Hang said.

She underlined that Vietnam has sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction over the waters in the East Vietnam Sea, as established in the provisions of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The spokesperson said Vietnam has made contacts with China, opposed China’s repeating its violation and demanded China to immediately withdraw its violating vessels from Vietnam’s waters. 

Vietnam also demanded that China respect Vietnam’s sovereign rights and jurisdiction, and its legitimate rights and interests, in accordance with international law and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Hang added.

She added that Vietnamese authorities at sea have employed a range of appropriate measures to exercise Vietnam’s sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction in a peaceful and lawful manner for safeguarding the Southeast Asian country’s waters.

Vietnamese foreign ministry spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang. Photo: Vietnam News Agency

This is the second time in a little more than a month Chinese ships have violated Vietnam’s EEZ and Continental Shelf.

On July 19, the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed for the first time the violations of Vietnam’s EEZ and Continental shelf by the Haiyang Dizhi 8 and its escort vessels in the south area of the East Vietnam Sea.

“Over the last several days, the Chinese survey ship, Haiyang Dizhi 8, and its escorts conducted activities in the southern area of the East Sea that violated Vietnam’s Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf as established in the provisions of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which Vietnam and China are party,” Hang, the ministry spokesperson, said in a statement on the same day.

“Vietnam has made contact with China on multiple occasions via different channels, delivered diplomatic notes to oppose China’s violations, and staunchly demanded China to stop all unlawful activities and withdraw its ships from Vietnamese waters, and to respect Vietnam’s sovereign rights and jurisdiction over its waters.”

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