VN opposes Taiwanese officials’ visit to Spratly

Spokesperson Luong Thanh Nghi

The Spokesperson made the statement at the Ministry’s regular press briefing held in Hanoi on May 10.

He went on to say that the action violated Vietnam’s sovereignty over the island, causing tension and complicating the situation in the East Sea. “Vietnam requests Taiwan to stop that kind of action”, he asserted.

Responding to correspondents’ question on the operation of China’s first deep-water drilling rig CNOOC 981 in the East Sea, Mr. Nghi said that Vietnam is extremely concerned about the news.

All relevant countries have to abide by international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and avoid violating sovereignty, sovereignty right and jurisdiction of the other ones in favor of peace and stability in the East Sea”.

The Spokesperson reaffirmed Vietnam’s undeniable sovereignty over Paracel and Spratly archipelagos while answering reporters’ question about the misleading information of Google’s web mapping service about the country’s Paracel archipelago.

Vietnam is ready to share accurate evidence of documents, maps and data of its sovereignty in the East Sea with publishers and printers.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs met with Google representatives to present its opinion that the keyword in Google Maps misled people about Vietnam’s sovereignty over the two archipelagos. Google has already fixed the mistake, he concluded/. 

By Huong Giang