KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said Sunday that the maritime disputes between China and the Philippines can only be resolved through biletaral talks as China has pushed with rival claimants in the past.
"Any unilateral resort to arbitration will only hurt the commitment to resolving the disputes and undermine political mutual trust," he said in a state news report at a press briefing on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit.
Liu said China, which is holding border negotiations with India and Bhutan, has successfully resolved its land boundary disputes with 12 out of its 14 land neighbors since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949.
"For China, our position is to call for the observation of Article 4 of DOC (the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea), that is, the sovereign states directly concerned should settle the disputes through consultation and negotiation," he said.
Liu hopes that the two countries would speedily return to the negotiating table to solve the maritime disputes.
The Philippines filed an arbitration case at an international tribunal in The Hague in early 2013. The oral arguments are set to resume Tuesday, a month after the arbitral tribunal decided it has jurisdiction to hear the case.
China has refused to be involved in the proceedings, stressing that the tribunal has no jurisdiction over the territorial disputes and that the rows should be settled by the countries directly involved through consultation and negotiation. — Camille Diola with reports from Xinhua