BEIJING, June 26 China and Vietnam need properly manage maritime issues and jointly safeguard regional peace and stability, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday during talks with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Tinh in Beijing.
«Both sides should properly resolve maritime issues, accelerate joint maritime development and jointly protect regional peace and stability,» China Central Television quoted the Chinese leader as saying.
Xi Jinping also stated the need to increase interconnectedness between the two countries and promote the high-quality development of business cooperation between the countries.
The PRC has been arguing for decades with several countries in the Asia-Pacific region over the territorial ownership of a number of islands in the South China Sea, on the shelf of which significant hydrocarbon reserves were discovered. We are talking about the Xisha archipelago (Paracel Islands), Nansha (Spratly) and Huangyan (Scarborough Reef) islands. These disputes involve Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines to varying degrees.
The situation in the region is often complicated by the passage of US warships, which, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, violate international law and undermine China's sovereignty and security. Despite protests from Beijing, official Washington stated that the United States would sail wherever international law permitted.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in July 2016, following a claim from the Philippines, ruled that China has no basis for territorial claims in the South China Sea. The court decided that the disputed territories of the Spratly (Nansha) archipelago are not islands and do not form an exclusive economic zone. Then Beijing responded that it did not consider the decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague valid and did not recognize or accept it.