© Hoanf Dinh Nam / AFP
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, annual ASEAN meeting.
, which has urged it to abide by the terms of a recent international ruling that challenges Beijing's claims to the South China Sea. Meanwhile,
South Asian countries have also failed to display a united position on the ruling. "Japan is not a party to the South China Sea issue, and considering its shameful history, it has no rights whatsoever to accuse China on the matter," the foreign ministry spokesman, Lu Kang, said in Beijing on Sunday.
The response was prompted by a statement made by Japanese foreign minister Fumio Kishida, who promised to discuss the dispute with his Chinese counterpart during the meeting of ten Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which has kicked off in Laos. "I'd like to emphasize importance of the rule of law and finding solutions through peaceful measures," Kishida promised the Japanese media, before leaving for Laos capital Vientiane. Neither China nor Japan are full members of ASEAN, but both are present at the talks.
Four of ASEAN's members - the
Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei - have territorial claims on the naval passage that serves as the thoroughfare for an annual $5 trillion dollars' worth of trade goods.
Philippines won a victory on July 12, when the UN-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration
rejected China's position. Beijing says that due to its historical use of the waters and the small rocks that dot the passage it is entitled to almost 90 percent of the South China Sea. To reinforce its claims Beijing has upped its military presence in the region, and even constructed an artificial island inside the water mass. China boycotted proceedings, and on Sunday, Lu Kang repeated that
Beijing considered the Hague decision "illegal and invalid."
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