Any content containing information that violates Vietnam’s territory and sovereignty is “null and void,” spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Le Thi Thu Hang commented at a press briefing held on August 25 in Hanoi.
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| Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Le Thi Thu hang addresses reporters during the press briefing__Photo: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs |
She was referring to the map used in a social media post by the World Meteorological Organization which contained the infamous ‘nine dash line’ map that represented China’s expansive claims over much of the waters, islands, reefs and other geological features in the South China Sea.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration, a Hague-based international tribunal, has in 2016 ruled that Beijing’s nine-dash line has no legal basis in the landmark Philippines v. China case, however China has refused to recognize the authority of this court as well as its decisions.
“Vietnam has on numerous occasions rejected the so-called nine dash line in the South China Sea along with other claims that go against the United Nations Charter on the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS),” Hang said.
“Vietnam is of the opinion that all forms of propagation of images and contents that infringe upon Vietnam’s sovereignty over the Spratly and the Paracel archipelagos, as well as Vietnam’s sovereign rights and jurisdiction over relevant waters in the South China Sea as established by the 1982 UNCLOS, are null and void,” she added.
The spokesperson said Vietnam demands that countries and organizations respect Vietnam’s maritime sovereignty over the two archipelagos of Spratly and Paracel and relevant waters, and remove or amend offending contents.
