GMA News said Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has expressed the country's plans to seek defense options, including legal ones, to insist its maritime claims against China. Dung's comments, which were give in a written response to Reuters' questions, would be the first time he had suggested that Vietnam will take legal measures.
Dung's statements were supposedly incited by a recent deployment of a Chinese oil rig in one of the disputed areas in the South China Sea, the Philippine news portal said. Vietnam's legal actions could most likely infuriate China.
While on a visit to Manila, the Philippine capital, Wednesday, Dung said in an email, "Vietnam is considering various defense options, including legal actions in accordance with international law. I wish to underscore that Vietnam will resolutely defend its sovereignty and legitimate interests because territorial sovereignty, including sovereignty of its maritime zones and islands, is sacred."
Dung fell short on expounding further the other actions Vietnam would be taking regarding the territorial dispute, GMA News noted.
Vietnam is not the only country China has been disputing with over territorial claims. In Late March, the Philippines sought to escalate discussions about its own territorial dispute with China by submitting a case to an arbitration tribunal in The Hague. The move was seen as the first time the mainland has been subjected to international legal scrutiny over maritime claims. China since then has voiced out that it will not be participating in the said case, and has also warned the Philippines that the submission would damage the already strained ties.
GMA News said that China has claimed around 90% of the South China Sea, and had argued such claims by publicly showing them on official maps with a so-called nine-dash line, which stretches out deep into the heart of the Southeast Asian waters. Some of the potentially energy-rich waters have been claimed by Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
