Vietnam has reiterated its consistent policy of settling East Sea disputes through peaceful means in a recent diplomatic note to the United Nations, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang said.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang

“Vietnam's consistent position is to resolve the ongoing disputes in the East Sea through peaceful means on the basis of international law as defined in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982),” Hang said at an online press briefing in Hanoi on April 9. 

She stressed that Vietnam asserts its sovereignty over the Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagos in the East Sea in accordance with international law. In addition, the country also affirms its sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction over the waters stipulated in the 1982 UNCLOS.

The viewpoint was clearly and fully expressed in a diplomatic note recently sent out by the Vietnamese Permanent Mission to the United Nations, Hang said, adding that circulating such a note at the UN is a normal activity.