The Vietnam Maritime Administration (VMA) has called for support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in handling a case in which a Vietnamese cargo ship, Royal 45, has been seized by Singaporean authorities for more than three months over a lawsuit. The VMA on Monday sent a document to the ministry’s Consular Department, asking the latter to direct the Vietnamese diplomatic representative office in Singapore to contact local authorities for helping the ship owner protect the vessel and the legitimate rights and interests of the Vietnamese sailors on board. Royal 45 was seized by Singaporean authorities on January 27, 2015, when it arrived in the city state to transport cargo, said Nguyen Dinh Giang, director of the Southern Maritime Services Joint Stock Company (SMS), which owns the ship. The seizure was made following the judgment of a Singaporean court, as the Royal 45 predecessor, Seaman, was directly involved in a lawsuit, Giang said. On September 4, 2014, the SMS bought Seaman from the Agribank Financial Leasing Company II (ALC II), under the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development. The SMS later carried out procedures to transfer the ownership of the vessel from the ALC II to the SMS, and change the name of the vessel from Seaman to Royal 45, Giang said.

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