MOSCOW, August 5. /TASS/. Any disputes in the Asia-Pacific should be resolved on the basis of international law, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Channel News Asia.
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Commenting on territorial disputes between China and its neighbors, Lavrov said: "We don’t believe that the attempts to internationalize these disputes are really healthy. Such attempts normally are intended not to help the countries in question to move closer but rather to gain some political scores internationally. I don’t believe this is serious and I don’t believe this is fair."
Lavrov noted that Russia’s position on this issue is "no secret". "We are strongly in favor for any dispute in South China Sea, in East China Sea, in any sea for that matter, to be resolved on the basis of the international law, including, first of all, the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention, on the basis of the declaration signed between China and ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations]," he added.
"On this basis the countries directly involved in any dispute should find mutually acceptable solution without any outside interference," Lavrov concluded.