Negotiation only solution to maritime disputes between China, Philippines: senior Chinese diplomat

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said here Sunday that the maritime disputes between China and the Philippines can only be resolved through negotiation.

Any unilateral resort to arbitration will only hurt the commitment to resolving the disputes and undermine political mutual trust, he said at a press briefing on the sidelines of a series of regional summits.

"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.

Reaffirming the Chinese government's sincerity in resolving all disputes via negotiation, Liu said that 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.

"The maritime disputes should also be resolved through negotiation," Liu said, adding that China's maritime disputes with the Philippines call for bilateral negotiation, which is the only channel to resolve the disputes.

It is hoped that the two countries would speedily return to the negotiating table to solve the maritime disputes, he said.

The Philippines filed an arbitration case at an international tribunal in The Hague in early 2013.

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. Endi