(VOVworld) – The White House announced on Friday that the US might support Vietnam’s use of legal actions against China with regard to China’s placement of an oil rig in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf.

White House spokesperson Patrick Ventrel said Washington supported peaceful measures to defuse tensions in the East Sea. He stressed that the US has had national interest in maintaining peace and stability, respect for international law, unobstructed legal trading, and freedom of navigation and aviation in the East Sea. Washington supports the use of diplomacy and other peaceful means to settle differences, including arbitration and other international legal mechanisms.

In related news, Doctor Ngo Nhu Binh from Harvard University said that international delegates to a recent workshop on the East Sea in Harvard University did not recognize the 9-spotted line China claims in the East Sea.