HANOI — Vietnam insists that China stops offshore oil exploration in the South China Sea within Vietnam’s territorial waters, the country’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh told Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the phone on Thursday.

The Vietnamese Foreign Ministry said on Friday the minister had criticized Beijing’s installation of the oil rig Haiyang Shiyou 981 in early May near the Paracel Islands, which the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea defines as part of Vietnam’s 200 mile exclusive economic zone.

Such actions contravene all earlier agreements between the two countries about the settlement of South China Sea disputes, said Pham Binh Minh.

The Vietnamese minister confirmed Hanoi’s adherence to peaceful settlement of the new turn in relations with the northern neighbor as “Vietnam remains moderate and is guided by good will to ease tension in the two countries’ relations”.

Binh Minh has sent his deputy to Beijing as a special representative and hopes for China’s positive reaction.

Read more: http://www.interaksyon.com/article/86994/vietnam-says-ready-to-settle-peacefully-its-dispute-with-china