Vietnam supports peaceful East Sea dispute settlement

Hanoi, November 27 (VNA) – Vietnam pursues the consistent policy of settling the dispute in the East Sea by peaceful means in line with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Le Hai Binh told the regular press conference in Hanoi on November 26. His statement was in response to reporters’ queries about Vietnam’s position on the ongoing hearings regarding the Philippines’s lawsuit against China over the East Sea issue at the United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA). In that spirit, Vietnam continued sending delegations in the capacity as observers to the hearings at the PCA between the Philippines and China from November 24-30, Binh said. The PCA started its hearings of the Philippines’ arbitral case against China over the disputed territory in the East Sea, in The Hague, the Netherlands, on November 24 which are held behind closed doors but observers from Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam are allowed in. The hearings are slated to last till November 30 and the court expects to issue a decision on the case in 2016. Previously, the PCA had rejected China’s argument that The Hague-based tribunal does not have authority to rule on the case and declared its full rights./.