A number of new photos featuring efforts by Vietnamese coast guards and fisheries surveillance forces in protecting the nation’s sea and island sovereignty, following China’s illegal placement of its oil rig Haiyang Shiyou-981 in Viet Nam’s exclusive economic zone, are on display at an exhibition in Hanoi.
"A corner of Truong Sa (Spratly)"
Some of the 112 images on show demonstrate a fleet of Chinese vessels all together attacking Vietnamese coast guard and fisheries surveillance ships.
They also help confirm Viet Nam’s sovereignty over Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagos as well as its territorial waters and continental shelf.
The exhibition, which runs from May 28 to June 5, gives visitors an insight into the fact that China’s acts have seriously violated Viet Nam’s sovereign rights and jurisdiction prescribed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), to which China itself is a signatory.
Artists and photographers across the nation have voiced their strong condemnation of China’s behaviour and demanded thai it withdraw the oil rig from Viet Nam’s waters without delay.
Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Ho Anh Tuan said the exhibition confirms the Vietnamese people’s resolute determination to defend the nation’s independence and territorial integrity.