UNCLOS 1982 - The 'backbone' for Vietnam to promulgate policies and legal systems on the sea

Permanent Deputy Minister Nguyen Minh Vu chaired the International Workshop and Annual Meeting of the UNCLOS Friends Group in March 2025. (Source: Vietnam Mission to the United Nations)

Promote integrity and universal values

After more than 9 years of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) was signed by countries and officially came into effect in 1994.

Since then, UNCLOS has been widely recognized by the international community as the "Constitution of the seas and oceans", the most important multilateral international treaty, a comprehensive and complete legal document, regulating all issues in the maritime space.

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As a coastal country and aware of the importance of the sea for national security and sustainable economic development, Vietnam was one of the first 107 countries to sign the UNCLOS Convention and the 63rd country to ratify UNCLOS before the Convention officially came into effect.

On June 23, 1994, the Vietnamese National Assembly passed a Resolution on ratifying the 1982 UNCLOS Convention, “expressing its determination to join the international community in building a fair legal order, encouraging development and cooperation at sea.”

Vietnam always upholds and affirms the importance, integrity and universal value of UNCLOS, and always fully and responsibly complies with and implements the provisions of the Convention.

Firstly, UNCLOS is the only international treaty fully named in the Party Congress documents of Vietnam, which is the basis for Vietnam to continue to promulgate policies and perfect the national legal system related to seas and islands towards sustainable development, meeting the requirements of protecting sovereignty over seas and islands, ensuring compliance with international law, including UNCLOS.

In the Resolution ratifying UNCLOS, Vietnam set the goal of “making necessary amendments and supplements to relevant provisions of national law to conform with UNCLOS”.

On that basis, the National Assembly passed the Vietnam Law of the Sea on June 21, 2012, marking the first time our country has a comprehensive law on the sea.

This is the most important and complete legal document on issues related to Vietnam's sea areas such as the determination and legal regime of Vietnam's sea areas (such as internal waters, territorial waters, contiguous zones, exclusive economic zones, continental shelves), or contents related to sea management and protection, marine economic development, international cooperation on the sea, patrolling, controlling at sea, handling violations... The 2012 Law on the Sea of ​​Vietnam has basically internalized the provisions of UNCLOS.

In addition, Vietnam also issued many other legal documents and regulations regulating different specialized fields in the maritime space such as marine environmental protection, oil and gas, maritime, fisheries, etc.

On June 21, 2012, the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam passed the Vietnam Sea Law, consisting of 7 chapters and 55 articles, affirming Vietnam's sovereignty over the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos in accordance with UNCLOS 1982. (Source: VTV)

Second , Vietnam has a consistent stance on maritime issues, upholding the spirit of the rule of law, considering the Convention as the legal basis for conducting activities at sea, including peacefully resolving maritime disputes with neighboring countries, towards peaceful and sustainable governance of maritime areas, including the East Sea.

Resolution 36-NQ/TW dated October 22, 2018 of the 12th Party Central Committee on the Strategy for sustainable development of Vietnam's marine economy to 2030, with a vision to 2045, identifies the general goal of turning Vietnam into a strong maritime nation.

In particular, the Resolution mentions the content of proactively strengthening and expanding foreign relations and international cooperation on the sea, resolutely and persistently fighting to protect the sovereignty and legitimate and legal interests of the country at sea, and proactively and actively resolving and handling disputes and disagreements in the East Sea by peaceful measures on the basis of international law, especially UNCLOS, maintaining a peaceful, stable and cooperative environment for development.

Flexible application, promoting the principle of fairness

In practice, Vietnam has flexibly applied the Convention in resolving maritime differences and disagreements, successfully delimiting the sea with a number of neighboring countries, while upholding the principle of fairness to find reasonable solutions.

Vietnam signed the Agreement on Maritime Delimitation with Thailand in 1997 and signed the Agreement on Gulf of Tonkin Delimitation with China in 2000.

With Indonesia, Vietnam signed the Agreement on Continental Shelf Delimitation in 2003; completed negotiations on exclusive economic zone delimitation in 2022.

In addition, on the basis of UNCLOS, Vietnam and some neighboring countries have conducted a number of cooperation activities in the region. Some cooperation models include: the Joint Marine Scientific Research Survey Program (JOMSRE-SCS) between Vietnam and the Philippines, or the Tripartite Agreement on Joint Seismic Exploration (JMSU) between oil and gas companies of China, the Philippines and Vietnam.

The Agreement on Fisheries Cooperation between Vietnam and China in the Gulf of Tonkin (signed in 2000, effective since 2004, now expired) is also considered a model in fisheries cooperation.

Another typical example of joint cooperation is the 1992 Joint Exploitation Cooperation Agreement between Vietnam and Malaysia, under which the two sides agreed to cooperate in joint exploitation in overlapping areas based on the principle of cost sharing and equal division.

This is the first bilateral agreement between Vietnam and countries in the region regarding overlapping maritime areas, before UNCLOS came into effect but is completely consistent with the spirit of UNCLOS.

The UNCLOS Convention is a solid legal foundation for Vietnam to protect national interests. (Photo: QT)

Third , Vietnam has been, is and will actively participate in contributing to many forums on sea and ocean law; and to sea and ocean issues that are of concern to the international community such as climate change, ocean waste, and biodiversity.

For the first time, Vietnam and Germany initiated and co-chaired the campaign to establish the UNCLOS Friends Group in 2020, promoting exchanges on UNCLOS and cooperation on issues of common concern (currently the Group has more than 120 participating countries, representing all geographical regions).

Vietnam actively participates in the mechanisms established within the framework of UNCLOS such as nominating the list of arbitrators and conciliators, recommending experts to the Legal and Technical Commission (LTC) of the International Seabed Authority (ISA).

For the first time, in 2024, Vietnam nominated a candidate for the position of judge of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) for the 2026-2035 term.

In addition, Vietnam has actively participated in the implementation agreements within the framework of the UNCLOS Convention such as the Agreement on the Implementation of Part XI of UNCLOS on the Area (since 2006) and the Agreement on the Implementation of UNCLOS on the Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks and Amphibians (abbreviated as UNFSA, since 2018).

Vietnam actively participated in the negotiation process and was one of the first countries to sign the Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biodiversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) immediately after it was opened for signature. Vietnam actively participated in the procedures for seeking advisory opinions at ITLOS and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on state obligations in the field of climate change.

Thus, it can be seen that, with a consistent stance, together with efforts and practical work, Vietnam has been and continues to demonstrate its role and sense of responsibility as a member of the Convention in complying with and implementing, contributing to strengthening the integrity and universal value of this Convention.

In February 2025, the Asia-Pacific group of member countries at the United Nations unanimously nominated Vietnam for the position of Chairman of the 35th Conference of the States Parties to UNCLOS (SPLOS), scheduled to take place next June.

This is the first time Vietnam has assumed this position, demonstrating the high trust and recognition of the international community for Vietnam’s efforts in recent times. At the same time, this will be an opportunity for Vietnam to continue demonstrating its role as a responsible member state of UNCLOS, making a substantial contribution to the international community’s joint efforts in global governance of seas and oceans.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/unclos-1982-xuong-song-de-viet-nam-ban-hanh-chinh-sach-va-he-thong-phap-luat-ve-bien-314130.html