People across Asia expressed their solitude with France after the Bastille Day truck attack in the Mediterranean city of Nice that killed at least 84 people. The Chinese have also denounced the ruling.
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Speaking in an informal meeting during the summit, Li said the South China Sea issue should not be subject to multilateral discussions from the very beginning, or be included in the summit’s agenda.
Yasay said hoped the ruling would lead to other Southeast Asian countries issuing a joint statement, adding that it could help neighbours also locked in disputes with China.
The commander of the People’s Liberation Army Navy Wu Shengli has stressed that China and the United States have key roles in ensuring peace and stability in the South China Sea, and cooperation between the navies of the two countries is “the only correct option”.
The U.S. has conducted three freedom of navigation operations since October in the South China Sea, each time drawing the ire of Beijing.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who said before the ruling that he wanted to start talks with China on the issue, has not commented on the tribunal’s decision, but described the territorial disputes as a complicated issue that may affect his country’s economy as well as ties with the US, a key treaty ally.
The Hague tribunal ruled last Tuesday there was no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources in areas falling within its nine-dash line, which is based on a map from the 1940s.
Such air patrols would become “a regular practice” in the future, Xinhua reported an air force spokesman as saying.
“The award is null and void and has no binding force”, Beijing’s foreign ministry said on its website.
In response to the ruling, the US said that while it is not commenting directly on the dispute, it supports the rule of law. “Because it would complete the so-called strategic triangle that could finally establish full control over the South China Sea, and they would know that the US and Japan will not allow that to happen easily”.
Following the ruling, Beijing has been on the offensive, claiming the support scores of countries and saying it will not follow the verdict.
The South China Sea is one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, believed to be sitting atop huge oil and gas deposits, but Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also consider some of the region’s waters, islands and reefs to be their territory. While these exercises will end on Thursday, Beijing has stressed that no civilian vessels are permitted in the area until the drills are complete.
A highly-contested region through which roughly $5 trillion in global trade passes annually, most of the South China Sea is claimed by China, though there are overlapping claims by Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei. John Richardson, to discuss the South China Sea dispute and ways to boost interactions between the two militaries.
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