DHAKA: China’s foreign minister on Saturday slammed the Philippines’ proposed three-stage resolution to territorial disputes in the South China Sea, saying Manila had already jumped to the third stage by seeking international arbitration.

‘If the Philippines want to carry it out it should revoke international arbitration because that is the third step. What it has done is jump to the third step,’ Wang Yi told journalists on the sidelines of a meeting in Myanmar’s capital of Asean foreign ministers and their dialogue partners.

Manila’s ‘triple action plan’ proposes that Asean must immediately call for cessation of activities that escalate tension in the area claimed almost entirely by China but also in part by four Asean states, most crucially by Vietnam and the Philippines.

The second, medium-term step would be to work on the ‘full and effective implementation’ of a 2002 Declaration of Conduct of the parties, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1654 HRS, AUG 09, 2014