NEW DELHI: Vietnam has invited India to explore and exploit natural resources within its 200-nauticalmile exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea region where China has deployed fighter jets and surfaceto-air missiles to the consternation of other countries.The country’s ambassador to India Ton Sinh Thanh on Wednesday said that Vietnam has sovereign rights and jurisdiction within 200 nautical miles of the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf in accordance with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).“We are determined to protect our rights and maintain regular activities in our sovereign waters. Accordingly, we shall continue to cooperate with other countries, including India, to explore and exploit resources within our 200-nautical-mile EEZ,” Thanh told a select gathering in Delhi.The comments came at a time when fresh reports from the United States said that Chinese Shenyang J-11 and Xian JH-7 warplanes have been spotted on Woody Island in the disputed Paracel Islands chain over the past few days in the SCS region.Vietnam claims sovereignty over both Paracel and Spratly Islands. “We have full historical evidence and legal foundation to confirm our sovereignty over these islands, which in fact have been owned and controlled peacefully and continuously by Vietnam since the 17th century when no other countries claimed their sovereignty over these islands. We are determined to protect our sovereignty over these islands,” Thanh said.The Vietnamese government had awarded India oil blocks in the SCS region amid growing defence partnership between the two countries that saw India placing a satellite tracking system in the country. Despite China’s protests India continues to be present in these oil blocks from where ONGC Videsh Limited supplies oil to Vietnam. South China Sea is rich in hydrocarbons and marine wealth, including fisheries.