Chinese FM says South China Sea disputes could be resolved

Visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi proposed on Friday three ways to solve the South China Sea disputes, and saying these three ways could be processing simultaneously.

Meeting with Surukiat Sathirathai, Chairman of Asia Peace Reconciliation Council and former Thai Deputy Prime Minister, Wang proposed three ways to solve the disputes.

First, he said, is to reach agreement through consultation and negotiation between direct parties concerned. He stressed that this is the fundamental way and the only way that can lead to final solution.

He said that China is always opening its door for dialogue with all disputing parties. The allegation that bilateral negotiation could not be moved forward is untrue and baseless, he said.

The Chinese Foreign Minister said that the second way is to continue to implement the Declaration of the Conduct of the South China Sea, while gradually push forward the consultations on the Conduct Code of the South China Sea.

He said both the Declaration and Conduct Code are not the solutions for disputes, but meant to commonly safeguard peace and stability in the region.

Wang said the Conduct Code was disrupted by some individual party's behavior, China do not want to see that happen again.

The Third way, The Chinese Foreign Minister said that searching for ways of common exploitation. He said that it took time to find a final solution for the South China Sea disputes, before that the parties concerned should jointly searching for ways of common exploitation on win-win and mutual beneficial basis.

He said common exploitation is not only for economic interest, but it will also send signals to the other parts of the world that the countries in the region are willing to solve their disputes in the way of cooperation.

Wang stressed that China persistently advocates solve disputes through negotiations on the basis of respecting historical facts and international law. These two are equally important and neither should be neglected.