In his important speech delivered in the coastal city of Nha Trang on the evening of June 8, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung stated to: “Continue to confirm Vietnam’s undeniable sovereignty over the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos”.

The PM also confirmed: “Vietnamese people have will and strength to maintain and defend its waters and islands”.

“The Vietnam Sea and Islands Week is held in the coastal city of Nha Trang in the central province of Khanh Hoa – a beautiful and famous city of tourism. I highly appreciate the efforts of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Khanh Hoa Province People’s Committee, the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union’s Central Committee and related agencies to organize this important event. This is the opportunity for us to once again confirm our will to defend our waters and islands, to join activities to cope with climate change, and to maintain the sea environment for our planet’s sustainable development,” PM Nguyen Tan Dung said.

“On this occasion, we need to confirm and well implement the following significant missions:

Continue to strongly confirm and show the strong will of the whole Party, the entire people and the entire army in defending the sovereignty, the right of sovereignty and the right of jurisdiction of Vietnam over its waters and islands. For many generations, our ancestors paid great efforts and also blood and bone to maintain and defend our sacred waters and islands. Today, we need to creatively use lessons of history, to combine the national strength with the power of the age, to highly raise justice and reason, to bring into full play the inner force, while seeking the international community’s support to firmly defend our waters, islands and economic activities in the sea.

Continue to confirm Vietnam’s undeniable sovereignty over its waters, exclusive economic zone and continental shelf under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The Vietnamese people and the country of Vietnam have will and united strength of the whole nation to maintain and defend our waters and islands. We are persistent with the policy to solve disputes in the East Sea by peaceful measures based on the international laws, particularly the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and at the same time strongly protest and firmly struggle against intrusion of Vietnam’s sovereignty and legal interests in the sea.

While being persistent to negotiate and seek a basic and long-term solution, Vietnam asks related parties to restrain and do not commit activities that make the situation in the East Sea more complicated, to observe their commitment on solving disputes by peaceful measures based on principles of the international law, the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the five principles of peaceful co-existence, to strengthen efforts in building trust, in multilateral cooperation on safety in the sea, on scientific research, on combating crime and to strictly observe the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), which was signed in 2002 between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China, together to build a Code of Conduct (COC) to really turn the East Sea into the sea of peace, stability, friendship and development for the interest of all countries in the region, for the common security of the region and the world.

Maintaining territorial sovereignty and peace, stability in the East Sea are the overall issues. The settlement of incidents in the East Sea needs to be placed in the country’s social and economic development strategy and in Vietnam’s foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, openness, diversification and activeness in international relations; do not let reactionary forces take advantage of incidents to attack and sabotage the leadership of the Party and the State, to distort and sow division in relations between Vietnam and related countries.”

In his speech, the PM also pointed our other missions, including: Completing policies and laws on waters, islands, management of the natural resources and environment in the sea; having appropriate policies to mobilize all economic sectors and international resources to effectively explore potentials of the sea and islands; quickly increasing the contribution of sea economy to the entire economy’s growth; strengthening and effectively implementing synchronous measures to protect fishermen, economic and legal activities in our waters and islands.

He emphasized that in developing economics in general and developing sea economics; in particularly, environmental protection must be a priority.

The Vietnamese PM stated that Vietnam will continue to expand and strengthen friendly cooperation with countries in the region and the world, as well as international organizations in issues related to sea and islands, based on the respect of sovereignty, national interests and international law, ensuring security and safety of international maritime, together building a region of peace, stability, cooperation and development.

Noted by Truc Nam Son