Bilateral talks safest way to solve South China Sea dispute: Russian experts

MOSCOW - The safest way to solve the South China Sea dispute is to hold bilateral talks between the parties involved and not to internationalize the issue, experts from Russia say.

"The Chinese leadership is trying to build a two-way interactive format with the Philippines, Vietnam and others. This is a position that we certainly welcome," said Sergei Luzianin, acting director of the Institute for Far Eastern Studies from the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In early 2013, the Philippines initiated proceedings against China at the Permanent court of Arbitration in the Hague, the Netherlands, alleging that China's "maritime claims" contradicted the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which became effective in November 1994.

The tribunal is expected to pass a ruling later this month.

China has officially refused to participate in arbitration, saying that territorial issues are subject to international law and not UNCLOS.

Timofei Bordachov, head of the Eurasian Program of the Valdai Club, says the South China Sea issue is not a question of international arbitration.

China has every right to look for international diplomatic solutions, rather than solutions of an arbitration court located far away, said Bordachov.

Bilateral negotiations should take into account not only territorial issues, but also the strategic importance of this region, said Vasily Kashin, senior fellow at the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies of the Moscow-based Higher School of Economics (HSE), one of the top research universities in Russia.

"Broader agreements are needed, which would not only delimit some territories, but would also regulate basic policy issues of the relations system there," Kashin said.

Bordachov believed that "the provocative and aggressive" US policy toward China is behind the attempts to internationalize the issue.

Luzianin said the launch of the tribunal is a collective effort to "impose on China an alternative view on the South China Sea division." He added that the United States is creating "informal anti-Chinese coalitions or groups" to dispute China's sovereignty.

Kashin noted that the situation in the South China Sea is an "element of confrontation and rivalry between the United States and China."

"The South China Sea is the most strategically important area of the Pacific Ocean," Kashin said, "the control of which determines the alignment of forces in the region."