HANOI, Vietnam, June 22, (AP): Vietnam is ready to hold talks with the Philippines to settle their overlapping claims to the undersea continental shelf in the South China Sea, official Vietnamese media said Friday, in a diplomatic approach that contrasts with China’s increasingly assertive actions to fortify its claims in the contested waters.
The Philippine government said over the weekend that it has asked a United Nations body to formally recognize its right to the undersea continental seabed extending from its western coast outward to the South China Sea, a region that covers the hotly contested Spratly group of islands, islets and reefs. If granted, that would give Manila the exclusive right to exploit undersea resources there.
The undersea continental shelf claimed by the Philippines could overlap with those claimed by other coastal states such as Vietnam, which lies across the strategic seaway. Philippine officials expressed their readiness to hold talks to resolve such issues based on the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the international treaty that provides legal guidelines to define coastal states’ territorial waters.
Under the convention, a coastal state has the exclusive right to exploit resources in its continental shelf, a stretch of seabed that can extend up to 350 nautical miles (648 kilometers), including the right to authorize and regulate any kind of drilling.
Vietnam "stays ready to discuss with the Philippines to seek and achieve a solution that is mutually beneficial for both countries,” Vietnam Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Pham Thu Hang said in Hanoi on Thursday, according to the official Vietnam News Agency.