Australian MP calls on gov't not to add to tension in South China Sea

Australian government should do all it can to de-escalate the tension in South China Sea and help find peaceful resolution to the disputes instead of dictating, said Linda Burney, Member for Barton at the Federal Parliament House of Representative.

In a statement on Friday, Burney said it is crucial that the Australian government do all it can to ensure that it does not add to the tension in the region.

"The focus needs to be on de-escalating tension and resolving disputes - it isn't the role of the Australian government to dictate these terms but we should be doing all we can to help find peaceful solutions."

"Any solution will need to involve the peaceful diplomatic cooperation of all the nations in the region - that includes China and Australia."

After an ad hoc arbitral tribunal issued on Tuesday a so-called award on the South China Sea arbitration, which was unilaterally initiated by the former government of the Philippines, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop warned China there would be "strong reputational costs" for ignoring the ruling.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang then urged Australia not to treat the illegal conclusion of an unlawful arbitration court as the international law.

"We hope that the Australian side will take international law seriously, instead of as a trifling matter," Lu said.

China respects international law - if any country violates it, the consequences will not be only reputational costs, Lu said, noting that China upholds the sanctity of the international law and rejects any action that violates the international law. Endit