Vietnam files claim with UN to extended continental shelf in South China Sea

By Anadolu staff

ANKARA (AA) Vietnam has submitted a claim with the United Nations (UN) to an extended continental shelf (ECS) in the South China Sea, the country's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

In a statement, the ministry said the country's representatives at the UN submitted information to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf beyond the current 200 nautical miles.

"As a continental state bordering the East Sea and a State Party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Viet Nam, in accordance with the relevant provisions of UNCLOS and its natural geographical conditions, has fully legal and scientific bases to assert that it is entitled to a continental shelf extending beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured," said the ministry.

The development came after the Philippines made a similar move at the UN last month.

Philippine diplomats at the UN submitted information to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf last month to “register the country’s entitlement to an extended continental shelf, or ECS, in the West Palawan Region” of the sea.

China later rejected the Philippines move, stating that Manila's action violates international law, including the UNCLOS, and contravenes relevant provisions of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea.

Territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea involve conflicting island and maritime claims in the region by several sovereign ASEAN nations, including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. Taiwan also has claims in the disputed waters.

However, China and ASEAN signed the South China Sea Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in November 2002, marking the first time Beijing had accepted a multilateral agreement on the issue.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid