India is “carefully studying” the verdict by an UN-backed tribunal which today ruled that China has no legal basis to claim “historic rights” to islands in South China Sea.
“India has noted the Award of the Arbitral Tribunal constituted under Annex VII of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in the matter concerning the Republic of the Philippines and the Peoples Republic of China and is studying it carefully,” the external affairs ministry said in a statement in New Delhi.
“India supports freedom of navigation and over flight, and unimpeded commerce, based on the principles of international law,” the statement added.
