China tells Japan not to intervene in South China Sea

Stressing that the South China Sea arbitration was “illegal and invalid” from the very beginning to end, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said Beijing’s rejection of the award is indeed in accordance with global law and the United Nation’s Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida was set arrive in Laos on Sunday to attend a series of regional ministerial meetings that are expected to focus on the recent Hague tribunal ruling on Beijing’s dispute with the Philippines over the South China Sea.

China, which claims nearly all of the South China Sea, including reefs and islands also claimed by others, called the ruling “ill-founded” and said it would not be bound by it. China has similar claims that clash with Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, and the ruling should have emboldened ASEAN to challenge Beijing more forcibly.

The gathering in Vientiane that began on Sunday is the first major regional talks since the UN-backed tribunal ruled earlier this month that China did not have historic rights to vast swathes of the strategic sea. The bloc makes decisions by consensus, which means any country can veto a proposal.

After talks with his Singaporean counterpart Vivian Balakrishnan, Wang said the two countries reached a consensus to “jointly exclude interference” and bolster Sino-Asean mutual trust.

Laos, which also is a China ally, has trod carefully and not taken sides because of its position as the host.

“They are now having a working luncheon followed by an ASEAN retreat, so the issue will be discussed during the retreat”, he said.

Some countries are pushing to include a reference that urges all countries to fully “respect diplomatic and legal process”, he said – in line with statements released by the European Union, the USA and Japan following the UN-backed decision.

A State Department official over the weekend said the USA would push for participants to ease tensions over the South China Sea and find common ground.

Asean (the Association of South-East Asian Nations) is made up of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

Those members, which back China’s long-standing position that territorial issues should be dealt only by countries directly concerned through bilateral talks, have insisted that the grouping should avoid touching on specific developments in the South China Sea, the diplomats said.

Cambodia also blocked a reference to the dispute at the 2012 meeting, when foreign ministers failed to issue a statement for the first time in the bloc’s history.

China has already objected to the Southeast Asian bloc’s meeting and called for bilateral negotiations with the Philippines.

In the planned statement, the officials want to reflect ASEAN and China’s strong will to use peaceful means in addressing disputes in the contested waters. A commentary published by the official Xinhua news agency on Sunday said the court ruling was a “blow to peace and stability in the region… and only serves to increase the likelihood of confrontation and turbulence”.