(BGF) – In a website, Vietnam has proved its claim over Spratly and Paracel Islands by stating historical, legal documents along with principles of international law and internal practices. In this report, Vietnam has historical sovereignty over the disputed waters.
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VIETNAM CONTINUOUSLY EXERCISES ITS SOVEREIGNTY OVER HOANG SA, TRUONG SA ARCHIPELAGOS
August 9, 2012
The Hoang Sa (Paracel) and the Truong Sa (Spratly) are the two archipelagoes to the East of the Vietnamese coast in the East Sea. The closest point of the Hoang Sa is about 170 nautical miles from the central city of Da Nang and about 120 nautical miles from the Re island, a near-shore island of Vietnam. While, the Truong Sa is about 250 nautical miles from the Cam Ranh Bay, Nha Trang city, Khanh Hoa province, at its closest point.
In the past, with sketchy information about the Hoang Sa and the Truong Sa archipelagos, navigators knew little about a large area of submerged reefs very dangerous for boats. Ancient Vietnamese documents indicated this area with various names, including “Bai Cat Vang” (Golden Sandbank), “Hoang Sa” (Golden Sand), “Van Ly Hoang Sa” (Ten-Thousand-Mile Golden Sand), “Truong Sa” (Long Sand) or “Van Ly Truong Sa” (Ten-Thousand-Mile Long Sand). Most of the maps drawn by Western navigators from the 16th to the 18th centuries marked the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagoes under one single name: Pracel, Parcel, or Paracels. All of the above-mentioned maps generally located Pracel (including both the Hoang Sa and the Truong Sa) as an area in the East Sea, east of Vietnam, off Vietnamese near-shore islands. Later, thanks to progress in navigation science, the Hoang Sa archipelagoes and the Truong Sa archipelagoes were clearly defined.
The two archipelagos identified as the Paracels and the Spratley or Spratly in present-day international maritime maps are precisely the two Vietnamese archipelagoes of “Hoang Sa” and “Truong Sa”. The appellations of Xisha and Nansha were given by China several decades ago to make claims to sovereignty over these islands. Long ago, the Vietnamese people discovered the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagoes. The Vietnamese state had occupied and exercised its sovereignty over the two archipelagoes in an actual, continuous and peaceful manner.
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