Photo: The Lap/TTXVN

(VOVworld)- Working teams representing Vietnam and China have completed the third round of less contentious negotiations on cooperation at sea in Beijing. The negotiations from April 22 to 24 was in line with the consensus between higher-level Vietnamese and Chinese leaders as well as the stipulations of the Vietnam-China Agreement on Basic Principles Guiding the Settlement of Maritime Issues signed on October 11, 2011.Both sides exchanged opinions and discussed measures to protect the maritime environment, boost cooperation on science and technology, and collaborate on search & rescue services and natural disaster response.They agreed to prioritise increasing joint search & rescue efforts, researching and managing the island and Tonkin Gulf maritime environments between Vietnam and China, and comparing vestigial Holocene sediments found in the Red River Delta and Yangtze River Delta. Both sides agreed to hold the fourth round of less contentious sea-related negotiations in Vietnam in the second half of this year.