Kazakhstan announced its position regarding territorial disputes in South China Sea

BEIJING. KAZINFORM Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Erlan Idrissov announced Kazakhstan's position regarding the territorial disputes in South China Sea, Kazinform correspondent reports from Beijing.

“Kazakhstan attaches great importance to maintaining and strengthening peace and stability in Asian-Pacific region, in particular, in South China Sea, which plays a key role in Asian and global agendas. The Republic of Kazakhstan stands for regulation of any territorial and other inter-state disputes and disagreements exceptionally in a peaceful manner, by means of available diplomatic instruments, negotiations and agreements,” said the Kazakh Minister answering a question from China Daily at the press conference held for Kazakh, Chinese and Spanish mass media.

“Kazakhstan calls all involved parties to put the supremacy of generally recognized norms of international law and necessity of searching for common ground on a bilateral level at the top of their priorities. We call also to settle all the disputes in a peaceful dialogue and constructive negotiations based on the principles of equal responsibility for the world and security, mutual respect and non-interference in internal affairs,” the Minister emphasized.

“We welcome the efforts of China and ASEAN countries on adjustment of the Code of Conduct in South China Sea, as per the 2002 Declaration on Conduct of Parties in South China Sea. We hope that the parties will succeed in defining the mechanisms of regulation of territorial disputes in the region and preserving mutually acceptable balance of forces,” concluded Idrissov.

Recall, that the 5^th session of the CICA Foreign Ministerial Council ended with adoption of the Joint Declaration, the 2016-2018 Action Plan on Cooperation in Combating with Drugs for and the 2016-2018 Action Plan on Implementation of the Confidence-Building Measures in Development of SMEs.

The CICA was established on the initiative of Kazakhstan President N.Nazarbayev on October 5, 1992 at the 47^th session of the UN General Assembly. During the period from 1992 to 2010 the CICA was presided by Kazakhstan, in 2010-2014 – by Turkey. China took the office of the CICA presiding county in 2014 and its chairmanship will last till 2018.