China pushes maritime disputes into back seat at G-20September 5, 2016 - 11:32 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - China opposes raising its maritime disputes at international meetings, including the G-20 summit ending Monday, September 5 in Hangzhou and subsequent meetings of Southeast Asian leaders and their partners in Laos, the Associated Press reports. To Beijing's pleasure, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he will not raise the subject of China's compliance with an international tribunal's ruling that invalidated Beijing's territorial claims in the South China Sea. Preferring a quiet diplomacy, Duterte last month sent his special envoy, former President Fidel Ramos, to meet with Chinese officials and they agreed on the need to reduce tensions through talks. "We will not raise hell now because of the judgment, but there will come a time that we have to do some reckoning about this," Duterte said. He said the Philippines can take only so much, with China insisting it owns the contested islands and refusing to recognize the arbitration ruling. "You cannot be slapped everyday with those kinds of words," Duterte said. China has relied on its ally Cambodia to block any overt mention of tensions in the South China Sea in communiques following meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, because it doesn't want to be confronted by a united bloc. President Barack Obama was more forthcoming in expressing his concerns over China's behavior. He said ahead of his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Hangzhou that the U.S. has been "very firm" in response to Chinese military assertiveness. "We've indicated to them that there will be consequences," he told CNN, according to AP. Xi told Obama that China will continue to "unswervingly safeguard" its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea, according to state-run Xinhua News Agency. Related links: Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |