UN ready to mediate in Vietnam-China row: spokesman

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Tuesday that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon would be ready to mediate if the parties involved request UN mediation, NHK said.

The head of the UN has also expressed hopes that the dispute will be resolved peacefully and in accordance with international law,NHK quoted Dujarric as saying.

The UN’s announcement came after China illegally deployed oil rig Haiyang Shiyou 981 and a large number of vessels to guard the platform within Vietnam’s 20-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone and continental shelf on May 1.

Also on Tuesday, President of the UN General Assembly John Ashe met with Vietnamese Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Le Hoai Trung at the UN Office in New York to discuss China’s illegal rig deployment.

Ambassador Trung told Ashe that Vietnam has full historical and legal evidence to prove its sovereignty over the Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago in the East Vietnam Sea.

Trung also rejected wrong and fabricated information in a report that China sent to the UN on Monday in relation to the rig.

The information and arguments in the report are untrue and not based on any international legal foundation, the ambassador told the UN president.

Trung also emphasized that China has seriously violated Vietnam’s sovereign rights and jurisdiction over its exclusive economic zone and continental shelf stipulated by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), to which both Vietnam and China are signatories.

China has also infringed upon the Declaration of the Conduct of Parties in the East Vietnam Sea, threatening the peace, stability, and maritime safety and security in the region.

Meanwhile, President Ashe expressed his deep concern over the situation in the East Vietnam Sea and supported Vietnam’s policy to resolve the issue through peaceful means based on the UN Charter and international law, Radio Voice of Vietnam (VOV) reported Wednesday.

The UN President also said the parties concerned should not take any unilateral action that would escalate the tension, and that he is willing to help the parties ease the conflict, VOV said.

Meanwhile, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric called for both sides to resolve the dispute peacefully and legally, according to BBC.

In a recent e-mail to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, Bonnie Glaser, an analyst at the U.S.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said China is worrying about its international prestige after it was accused by many countries in the region and the U.S. of being the attacker in the East Vietnam Sea.

She also said China does not want to be considered a country that often violates international law.