(VOV) – International scholars at a recent conference in Paris discussed issues relating to international law, and political, economic, and military challenges, in the East Sea.

Da Tay island of Vietnam’s Truong Sa/Spratly Archipelago (Photo: Manh Hung)

The conference was organized by the Institute for International and Strategic Relations (IRIS) and Gebriel Peri Foundation. Experts strongly rejected China’s territorial claim in the East Sea, especially its groundless arguments about the so-called nine-dotted line. They also carefully analyzed China’s map showing this line and proved that this map doesn’t match international law and legal precedents. Professor Monique Chemillier Gendreau from Paris University 7 says ‘Today international law stipulates that a nation can only declare its sovereignty over an island if it was the country that discovered it and has a permanent and long-term presence and an administrative system there. Based on this, China’s arguments, based on historical or literary materials have no legal standing. International law requires hard evidence. Meanwhile, Vietnam has proof that in the An Nam reign from the 18^th to the middle of the 19^th century when the French colonialists arrived, Vietnam set up agencies to administer the Hoang Sa/Paracel Archipelago. The agencies were responsible for natural resource exploration, fishing, and shipwreck salvage.The An Nam administration was unchallenged by any other country in the region. Control of the islands passed from the An Nam government to the French colonial administration, then to Ngo Dinh Diem’s Saigon administration, and finally to the current Vietnamese government in Hanoi. Vietnam has French documents which show that in the 1930s, the Chinese government left Truong Sa/Spratly Archipelago off its national map.’

Experts analyzed phrases used by China to refer to this area and confirmed that the words weren’t been used in international conventions like the 1982 Montego Bay Declaration to which China was a signatory. The meeting called on parties involved including the US and France, to marshal more evidence and arguments to resolve the current tension in the East Sea.

VOV correspondents in Paris