(VOVworld) – Meetings to protest China’s illegal placement of oil rig Haiyang-981 within Vietnam’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and continental shelf took place on Thursday at Ho Chi Minh City’s University of Technical Education, the Vietnam Youth Union in Dong Nai province, Nha Trang University, the Thua Thien-Hue Union of Friendship Organizations, and the Vietnam-China Friendship Association. Money was raised at these meetings to support soldiers defending Vietnam’s sea and islands.

Students of Nha Trang University oppose China's placement of oil rig Haiyang-981. (Photo: tuoitre.vn)

At a meeting on Thursday, Vietnamese Ambassador to India Nguyen Thanh Tan asked Vietnamese students in India to explain to their Indian friends and teachers that China’s act seriously violates Vietnam’s sovereignty.

Alecxandr Lukashevich, Director of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told a VOV correspondent in Moscow about Russia’s concern over China’s violation of international law by installing an oil rig in the East Sea. He said: “We are closely watching the increasingly complicated development in the East Sea. We hope that the parties involved will show restraint and settle any disagreement by negotiation.”

A ship of China Coast Guard rams into a Vietnamese ship. (Photo: tuoitre.vn)

The France-Vietnam Friendship Association sent a letter of protest to the Vietnamese Embassy in France. The Association urged China to withdraw oil rig Haiyang-981 and escort ships from Vietnam’s Exclusive Economic Zone and continental shelf and honor the commitment to promptly adopt a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).

The head of the France-Vietnam Friendship Parliamentarian group sent a letter to the French foreign minister calling for greater attention to the East Sea situation.