HARARE, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe has reaffirmed its support to China on the South China Sea issue, emphasizing that the matter should be resolved through dialogue.
"Zimbabwe has been following with interest developments in the South China Sea. Zimbabwe supports the peaceful resolution of the South China Sea dispute through friendly bilateral consultations and negotiations between the countries directly concerned," state media the Herald reported Thursday.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry was quoted as saying that Zimbabwe respected efforts by China and the ASEAN countries to safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea through dialogue.
"This is the only way in which a resolution can be found to this problem, which affects a number of countries in the region," the ministry said.
Last week, President Robert Mugabe told the visiting Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Ming that he supported the position of the Chinese side on the South China Sea.
Since 2013, the Philippines has been headstrong in bringing its maritime dispute with China to an international tribunal. It filed a compulsory arbitration against China at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague with respect to the two sides' dispute.
China maintains that the tribunal handling of the arbitration proceedings has no jurisdiction over the case, which is in essence about territorial sovereignty and maritime delimitation.
Territorial issues are beyond the scope of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and China has excluded maritime delimitation from compulsory arbitration in a declaration it made in 2006 in accordance with Article 298 of UNCLOS.
China, therefore, has made it clear it will not accept or get involved in those proceedings.
"The so-called South China Sea issue is an issue between China and littoral countries of the South China Sea," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said earlier this month, adding that China has opposed the internationalization of the South China Sea issue from the very beginning.
According to China's foreign ministry, by mid-June this year, some 60 countries have announced their approval of China's stance.
