PHNOM PENH, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said on Monday that the country will not support an arbitral tribunal's upcoming decision over the South China Sea issue and called on all parties concerned in the disputes to resolve their differences through bilateral negotiations.
In 2013, the Philippines unilaterally filed compulsory arbitration against China at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague with respect to the two sides' disputes in the South China Sea.
Speaking at a graduation ceremony here, the prime minister said that the tribunal's upcoming decision is "politically motivated" and Cambodia will not support the decision.
"It seems that there is a badly political conspiracy between some countries and the arbitral tribunal because the decision is not yet delivered, but they have launched a movement to seek support for the tribunal's upcoming decision," Hun Sen said, referring to a powerful country which had sent its ambassadors to lobby ASEAN leaders to support the yet-to-be-released decision.
Hun Sen said that the country's ambassador to Cambodia proposed to him that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should have one voice or statement in support of the arbitral tribunal's decision, which will be issued in the upcoming period.
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