Foundation for East Sea research launched

The East Sea Research Foundation (ESRF), a non-profit organisation to support studies of the East Sea, opened in Hanoi on Thursday.


The foundation aims to connect donors and intellectuals to protect the national sea and island sovereignty and foster measures to maintain peace, stability and co-operation in the East Sea, said chairman Dang Dinh Quy, the director of the Diplomatic Academy of Viet Nam (DAV), which founded the organisation along with former Deputy Foreign Minister Le Cong Phung Phung and former Vietnamese Ambassador to Singapore and Canada Nguyen Duc Hung. It will fund research by scholars, students and postgraduates as well as individuals who wish to contribute to protecting national sea and island sovereignty.

The foundation will organise contests, seminars and discussions on the East Sea issue both at home and abroad, in addition to supporting the publication of books and newspapers on the topic and granting awards to excellent research.

At the ceremony, the organising board announced a programme supporting East Sea studies in 2014 and subsequent years and presented 13 awards to outstanding research from 2013.