According to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and regulations of Vietnam’s Law of the Sea, our country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and continental shelf would not exceed 200 and 350 nautical miles respectively from the baseline. Under these regulations, there exist a number of areas in our EEZ and continental shelf overlapping other countries’, namely China, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Accordingly, management and exploitation of the overlapping seas must be based on agreements on sea border demarcation and maritime cooperation among the countries. Up to now, Vietnam has signed such agreements with other countries, such as Vietnam-Cambodia Agreement on Historical Waters (1982), Vietnam-Malaysia Memorandum of Understanding on exploitation of overlapping continental shelf (1992), Vietnam-Thailand Agreement on Sea Border Demarcation, Agreement on Delimitation of the Tonkin Gulf and Fishery Agreement in the Gulf of Tonkin between Vietnam and China (2000), Vietnam-Indonesia Agreement on delimitation of the continental shelf (2003). Those agreements are important legal ground for Vietnam to strengthen cooperation in management, protection, joint patrol, exploration and exploitation of natural resources in the overlapping seas with relevant countries.

Illustrative photo

To date, Vietnam has not yet signed any agreements on aquatic resources exploitation the overlapping zones with her neighbouring countries. Nevertheless, when permitted to catch fish in such zones, fishermen should abide by regulations on protecting fishery resources and sustainable development. They would not be allowed to use fishing methods, tools and equipment that exhaust, destroy fishery resources, and have a detrimental effect on sea environment and creature. They must conform to law of Vietnam and that of the countries sharing the overlapping zones.

Moreover, there are peculiar regulations for each agreement between Vietnam and other countries. As for Cambodia, local people from the two countries are used to catching fish in the historical waters. Fishermen from the third country would not be permitted to land fish in the waters. As for China, fishing within the delimitation line of the Tonkin Gulf must be in accordance with the Fishery Agreement between Vietnam and China which specifies the joint fishing zones, the temporarily arranged zones, procedures to get permission and pay charges, protection of fishery resources and sheltering from storm in the sea.

To conclude, regulations on aquatic resources exploitation in the overlapping seas between Vietnam and its neighbours could not apply to all countries. They certainly depend on history and specific issues of relevant parties. As for Vietnam, all its organizations and people involved in fishery in the overlapping seas should observe common regulations on sustainable development, law of Vietnam, and that of the countries share the overlapping seas, which will help maintain peace, stability, and strengthen cooperation for development in such seas.

Duy Khanh