The Heads of State/Government of Brunei Darussalam, the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Republic of Indonesia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, the Republic of the Philippines, the Republic of Singapore, the Kingdom of Thailand, and the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, Member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), gathered in Phnom Penh, on 3-4 April 2012, at the 20th ASEAN Summit.

The delegation of the Government of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam and the delegation of the Government of the People’s Republic of China agreed that the satisfatory settlement of maritime issues between Viet Nam and China goes in line with the basic interests and shared aspiration of the people of the two countries and is conducive to regional peace, stability, co-operation and development. The two sides agreed, on the basis of the common understanding that Vietnamese and Chinese Leaders reached on maritime issues and “The 1993 Agreement on the Basic Principles for the Settlement of Border and Territorial Matters between the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam and the People’s Republic of China”, to solve maritime issues

On March 23, 2011, Xinhua - the official news agency of China, published an article titled “The Nanhai sea dispute from the perspective of the international law of the sea” by scholars He Jian and Wang Ao from the Xiang Tan University, which not only asserted the so-called “sovereignty” of China in the East Sea but also accused Viet Nam and other Southeast Asian nations of having “bent” the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and fought against "China’s sovereignty” in the East Sea.

On 10 December 1982, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was opened for signature in Motego Bay, Jamaica. This marked the culmination of over 14 years of work involving participation by more than 150 countries representing all regions of the world, all legal and political systems, all degrees of socio-economic development, countries with various dispositions regarding the kinds of minerals that can be found in the Seabed, coastal States, States described as geographically disadvantaged with regard to ocean space, archipelagic States, island States and land-locked States.