Vietnam's public position on its South China Sea dispute with China moved closer to the Philippines' firm stance focused on international law adopted by President Aquino, Philippine and Vietnamese leaders met repeatedly in 2014 and voiced their shared concerns over Chinese actions and the need for the two claimants to work more closely together. In late November, Vietnam sent its two most capable warships on the first-ever port call by the Vietnam Navy to the Philippines despite the Philippines and Vietnam also being split by competing territorial claims in the South China Sea." In December, Hanoi requested that the International Tribunal on the Law of the sea lake into consideration Vietnam's legal rights in their arbitration of the Philippine case while supporting the tribunal's right to hear the case and rejecting China's nine-dash line claim to the majority of the South China Sea.