Taiwan’s Liberty Times website reported on Sunday that Taiwan is considering extending a runway by an additional 500m on Ba Dinh island in Vietnam’s Truong Sa archipelago. On the same day, the Taiwan Central News Agency reported that

Photo: Internet

Taiwan sent a delegation of young scholars from Cheng Gong University to the island. In response to these reports, a representative from National Border Committee of Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry said Vietnam has sufficient legal and historical evidence to affirm its sovereignty over Truong Sa (Spratly) and Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelagos. The representative stressed: “Activities of parties in Truong Sa archipelago without Vietnam’s permission violate the country’s sovereignty and international law, especially the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, go against the spirit of the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and cause tension in the East Sea.” The representative also asked Taiwan to stop similar activities and plans.

In an article last Wednesday on the Feng Huang website, a member of Taiwanese Kuomingtang Party’s Central Committee, Kou Yi, said that the waters around Tai Ping island belongs to Taiwan. Speaking to the reporters, the Foreign Ministry’s National Border Committee representative rejected the wrong statement.