Vietnam, China to conduct joint fishery patrol

The Vietnamese mission is led by Senior Colonel Tran Van Tho, Deputy-Commander and Head of the Staff Department of the Coast Guard Region 1 Command.

The joint patrol aims to strengthen the management over fishing vessels at seas and maintain fishing activities in the shared fishing grounds in the Gulf of Tonkin.

Other aims of these joint patrols are to boost expertise exchanges between the law enforcement agencies of the two countries’ coast guards, to follow  situations in the shared fishing grounds and uphold security, order and safety in the waters in the Gulf of Tonkin, to reinforce the ties among forces operating at sea, to promote information dissemination on strict observance of law and other regulations on exploiting sea and aquatic products, which are regulated in the Fishery Agreement in the Gulf of Tonkin, resulting in countries with shared maritime boundaries containing waters of peace, friendship, cooperation and development.

During the patrol, the Vietnam Coast Guard hopes to be proficient in exploiting equipped weapons and other equipment and to better their defense external affairs work while conducting joint missions with foreign partners.

As scheduled, Vietnamese and Chinese Coast Guard forces will patrol 11 locations in the shared fishery grounds in the Gulf of Tonkin, conduct  search and rescue exercises at sea, and check fishing vessels which are operating in the shared fishing grounds.

After the patrol ending on November 3, the two sides will co-host a meeting to review the joint patrol and issues related to the maintenance and observation of regulations in the Fishery Agreement in the Gulf of Tonkin, which was signed earlier by the two governments, and to ensure that the two countries’ fishery operations would further develop and reap practical outcomes.

Translated by Mai Huong