1982 Convention - the parties' viewpoints in resolving the dispute over the Paracel and Spratly Islands

(Baonghean.vn).In addition to China, Taiwan also passed a law declaring sovereignty and territorial waters on May 21, 1992, according to which the entire Spratly Islands belong to Taiwan's sovereignty, followed by the 1997 Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf Law and the 1998 Law on Territorial Sea and Contiguous Zone of China. According to these laws, the islands in the Spratly Islands have territorial waters, territorial waters, contiguous zones, exclusive economic zones and continental shelves.

On the Philippine side, in February 1979, a decree was issued that considered most of the Spratly Islands (except Spratly Island) as Philippine territory and annexed the area to Palawan province. The area claimed by the Philippines is nearly 250,000 km2.

In 1979, Malaysia published a map defining the scope of its territorial waters and continental shelf boundaries, in which the scope and boundaries covered the southern part of the Spratly Islands, including An Bang Island and Thuyen Chai Shoal of Vietnam, and the Philippine-occupied Cong Do Reef. In 1993, Brunei also issued a Declaration on the 200-nautical-mile continental shelf boundary but did not provide specific coordinates and had a sovereignty dispute with Lucia Reef located south of the Spratly Islands, with a claimed area of ​​nearly 40,000 square kilometers. However, Brunei is the only country among the claimants that does not occupy any position in the Spratly Islands, the overlapping area with Vietnam and Malaysia is relatively small and insignificant.

On the Vietnamese side, legal documents such as the 1980 and 1992 Constitutions, the 1994 National Assembly Resolution ratifying the 1982 Convention, the 2003 Law on National Borders, the 1977 Government Declaration on Maritime Zones, the 1982 Declaration on Vietnam's Baselines, the 1979, 1981 and 1988 White Papers all affirm sovereignty over the two archipelagos, stipulating that the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos are part of Vietnam's territory.

Countries in dispute with VietnamMaleAll have defined the scope of the two archipelagos according to their own understanding, mainly based on factors that are not prescribed by law or are not applied in accordance with the law, aiming to ensure national interests. The 1982 Convention sets out three options: either the islands in Hoang Sa and Truong Sa have their own territorial waters, exclusive economic zones and continental shelves; or the islands and rocks in the two archipelagos only have 12 nautical mile territorial waters and no exclusive economic zones and continental shelves; or maintain the "Status Quo", creating stability and peace for the region, while negotiating to find an acceptable solution. In December 2002, China and ASEAN signed the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea, pledging not to use force, not to complicate disputes and to cooperate in areas such as marine environmental protection, marine scientific research, anti-piracy, etc.

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