Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott (Source: Theaustralian.com.au)

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on June 4 declared that his country “strongly discourages” unilateral actions in the East Sea and East China Sea.

Before leaving Australia for a visit to Indonesia, Abbott said there is a lot that both countries can discuss on the seas.

“The Australia government has long had a consistent position. We discourage unilateral actions, we very strongly discourage and we disapprove of unilateral actions,” he stressed.

“We think that no country should seek to be provocative”, he said, suggesting territorial claims be resolved peacefully and in accordance with international law.

The Prime Minister’s statements came after China illegally placed its oil rig Haiyang Shiyou-981 in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf, and included part of the waters surrounding the Natuna archipelago that Indonesia claims sovereignty over in Beijing’s so-called “nine-dash” line that makes up 90 percent of the East Sea.

At the freshly-ended Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore, Australian Defence Minister David Johnson stated that the US, Australia and Japan are deeply concerned about the unilateral acts of China that caused instability in the East Sea and East China Sea.

The same day, the Communists of Russia released an official statement expressing their deep concern about the situation in the East Sea . They condemned aggressive acts of Chinese ships and China ’s stance on such behaviour as well as expressed their support for and solidarity with Vietnam in the issue.

At the beginning of May 2014, China illegally dispatched the rig Haiyang Shiyou-981 as well as a large fleet of armed vessels, military ships and aircraft to Vietnam’s waters and positioned the rig at 15 degrees 29 minutes 58 seconds north latitude and 111 degrees 12 minutes 06 seconds east longitude. The location is 80 miles deep into Vietnam ’s continental shelf and exclusive economic zone.

China ’s armed vessels aggressively fired high-power water cannons at and intentionally rammed against Vietnamese public-service and civil ships, causing damage to many boats and injuring many people on board.

Chinese ships have continuously encircled, constrained and driven away Vietnamese fishing boats and even injured Vietnamese fishermen, threatening their lives.

On May 26, Chinese ship 11209 sank a Vietnamese fishing vessel while it was operating normally in its traditional fishing ground near Vietnam ’s Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago.

On May 27, China moved the rig to 15 degrees 33 minutes 22 seconds north latitude and 111 degrees 34 minutes 36 seconds east longitude. The new location is 25 nautical miles from Tri Ton Island in Vietnam ’s Hoang Sa archipelago and 23 nautical miles east-northeast from the old location, still completely within Vietnam’s continental shelf. With the move, China has kept on violating Vietnam ’s sovereign right and jurisdiction.

VNA