China/Philippines/Vietnam/South China Sea: South China Sea Tensions Flare as Vietnam Files Stance to Court

Dec 12, 2014 | Diep Ngoc Pham and John Boudreau, Bloomberg
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Tensions over the South China Sea were reignited after Vietnam said it had submitted its stance on the dispute to the international arbitration tribunal reviewing the Philippines’ challenge against China’s claims.

Vietnam has asked the arbitration court to take into account its legal rights and interests in the disputed sea region, spokesman Le Hai Binh, said in a foreign ministry statement posted on its website yesterday. The country also refuted China’s claims to the Paracel and Spratly islands in the statement, which provoked a Chinese response yesterday that its neighbor’s claims were unlawful.