Marcel Winter speaks at the meeting (Source: VNA)Prague (VNA) – Overseas Vietnamese and locals in the Czech Republic met in Prague on August 23 to support the recent ruling from the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague, the Netherlands, on the Philippines’s lawsuit against China’s claims in the East Sea.
Pham Hong Thai, a representative from the event’s organising board highlighted the significance of the ruling, stressing that it rejected China’s claims of “historical rights” for natural resources within the so called “nine-dash line” in the East Sea.
A statement in English and Czech was issued, applauding the PCA’s judgment and supporting the peaceful settlement of disputes.
It called on involved nations to respect and obey the ruling, and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, asking China to immediately stop its militarisation of the sea which raises tensions and threatens the safety of fishermen in the area.
Activities to explain the ruling to locals and international visitors were arranged on the occasion with the key speech given by Marcel Winter, a Czech friend of the Vietnamese community.
Winter said that his participation in the meeting aimed to back Vietnam’s effort to safeguard national sea and island sovereignty.
He said he appreciates Vietnam’s policy of peacefully resolving disputes in the East Sea on the basis of international law.
China has to abide by the PCA’s ruling as well as international law, he stressed.-VNA
