(VOVWORLD) - Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Minh Vu has officially announced Vietnam’s candidate for the position of Judge on the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) for the 2026-2035 tenure.
 Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Minh Vu speaks to members of the UNCLOS Group of Friends. (Photo: VNA) |
The candidate is Associate Professor Nguyen Thi Lan Anh, Ph.D., Director General of the East Sea Institute at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam.
Ms. Lan Anh was introduced at the 34th meeting of States Parties to UNCLOS held in New York from June 10-14.
During the event, Deputy FM Vu, head of the Vietnamese delegation, chaired an international seminar on the rising sea level in the Pacific as well as the annual meeting of the “Group of Friends of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea” (UNCLOS).
At the seminar, Vietnamese legal experts shared their assessments from the perspective of Vietnam – a coastal country most affected by climate change, including the risks from rising sea levels.
They stressed the need to continue to comply with and fully implement the provisions of UNCLOS in the process of resolving emerging challenges in current sea and ocean governance. These provisions cover events such as marine environmental pollution, climate change-caused sea level rise.
They also call on support for the preservation of baselines, established boundaries of maritime zones, and maritime delimitation results agreed on by countries through negotiations or established by decisions of international judicial agencies in order to maintain stability and legal order at sea.
The seminar, organized by Vietnam in collaboration with a number of member countries of the “UNCLOS Group of Friends”, including Fiji, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Oman, with the co-sponsorship of Australia, Canada, Germany, the Philippines, and Singapore, drew about 100 delegates and experts on the law of the sea from more than 60 countries, as well as scholars and representatives from a number of UN agencies.
Established in 2021, the “UNCLOS Group of Friends” was initiated and co-chaired by Vietnam and Germany. It currently has 115 members from all regions, including 12 core countries responsible for coordinating the group's activities.