Hanoi, Aug 25 (IANS) Vietnam Monday made a strong pitch for greater Indian involvement in maintaining maritime safety and security and settlement of territorial disputes in the disputed South and East China Seas even as India is preparing to expand its oil and gas exploration in the seas claimed by China. Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh, addressing the Third Round Table on ASEAN-India Network of Thinktanks, said the cooperation between India and ASEAN “needs to be more effective and efficient as the security and development landscape is experiencing swift and complex conversions”. He noted that India-ASEAN’s “future development and integration lie in the South China Sea and Indian Ocean” and that both sides should focus “more on maintaining maritime safety and security, freedom of navigation and settling territorial disputes through peaceful means on the basis of international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982”.
Source: https://in.news.yahoo.com/india-examining-vietnams-south-china-sea-oil-blocks-134005747.html