The Mexico-Vietnam Cooperation and Friendship Institute (ICAMV) has called on China to fully commit to agreements it signed with Vietnam and international organisations, in order to settle the East Sea dispute peacefully.

In an open letter sent to the Vietnamese Embassy in Mexico, the ICAMV asked the Chinese Government to withdraw the Haiyang Shiyou-981 drilling oil rig and escort ships out of Vietnam’s Exclusive Economic Zone and continental shelf and end its provocative acts, so as to restore mutual understanding between the two countries.

It proposed the Mexican Government, especially Secretary of Foreign Affair Juan Antonia Meade, send a protocol to China, highlighting provisions of international agreements that assert national sovereignty of coastal countries.

The ICAMV also called on civil Mexican organizations and individuals to take part in a campaign “for peace and sovereignty of Vietnam”.

According to the ICAMV, since early May, China has conducted a series of actions violating Vietnam’s sovereign right and jurisdiction in the East Sea through its deployment of the Haiyang Shiyou-981 rig and a large fleet of more than 136 armed vessels, military ships and aircraft, to Vietnam’s waters.

They intimidated, attacked and sank a Vietnamese fishing boat - a serious transgression of the 2011 Vietnam-China agreement on basic principles guiding the settlement of sea-related issues, the 2002 ASEAN-China Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Earlier, the Mexican Labour Party, the Mexico-Vietnam Friendship Parliamentarians’ Group, the Democratic Revolutionary Party and the parliament of Zacatecas raised their voice in support of Vietnam’s stance of seeking peaceful solutions for the East Sea dispute.

VOV/VNN