(VOVworld) - Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung called on the US to raise a strong voice and take more pragmatic and effective actions to ask for an end to the large-scale construction of man-made islands that have changed the status quo in the East Sea.

On February 16, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and US President Barack Obama held talks on major cooperative areas between the two countries as well as international and regional issues of mutual concern on the sidelines of the ASEAN-US Summit at Sunnylands in California.

Vietnam is deeply concerned about the increasingly complicated development of the East Sea situation which threatens peace, security, and maritime and aviation safety and freedom in the sea, Dung told his host.

He blamed the situation on the large-scale unilateral land reclamation of illegally-occupied islands and the large-scale construction of man-made islands from submerged features that have changed the status quo in the East Sea, as well as the militarisation reinforcement under various forms.

PM Dung called on the US to raise a strong voice and take more pragmatic and effective actions to ask for an end to such deeds, especially the large-scale construction of man-made islands and militarisation in the East Sea, respect for and the serious realisation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties (DOC) in the East Sea, and the early conclusion of the Code of Conduct.

President Obama said the US is concerned about the East Sea issue and strongly supports diplomatic efforts and legal processes to handle the territorial disputes in the sea on the basis of respect for international law, especially the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the DOC.