Vietnam and China held the ninth round of negotiations of a working group on the sea area beyond the mouth of the Gulf of Tonkin and the sixth round of negotiations of a working group on cooperation in sea development in the central city Da Nang, on March 15-16.

Soldiers of Vietnam Coast Guard in a Vietnam-China joint patrol in the Gulf of Tonkin.

The Vietnamese delegation to the event was led by Nguyen Anh Dung, Vice Chairman of the National Border Committee under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while the Chinese delegation was headed by Zhou Jian, the representative for boundary and ocean affairs under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The two sides discussed various issues relating to the two working groups. They also pledged to seriously follow the common perceptions reached by the two countries’ senior leaders, including the agreement on basic principles guiding the settlement of sea-related issues, while step by step promoting the negotiations on the demarcation of the waters beyond the Gulf of Tonkin and cooperation for mutual development on the sea in line with international law, particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to which both Vietnam and China are signatories.

Vietnam and China also agreed to promptly organise the 10th round of negotiations of the working group on the sea area beyond the mouth of the Gulf of Tonkin and the seventh round of negotiations of the working group on sea development cooperation in China.

At the end of the meeting, the two sides signed the minutes of the negotiations.-VNA