In a bilateral meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sideline of Asean foreign minister meeting here in Vientiane, Don said territorial dispute on the contentious sea was intensively discussed.
“All concern parties notably in the Asean want to see the disputes were solved peacefully, Don told reporters Sunday after the bilateral meeting.
Territorial disputes over the South China Sea between members of Asean and China dominated the annual meeting of Asean foreign ministers.
The regional grouping Asean was struggling to have a common stance over the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA)’s judgment which said China has no historical right over the sea against the Philippines.
Claimant states notably the Philippines and Vietnam wanted the Asean to welcome the court decision while some members which have good connection with Beijing did not want to mention the ruling in the joint communiqué to be issued after the ministerial meeting.
With flexibility from China as well as Asean spirit to solve the different in peaceful way, the Asean officials would be able to break the diplomatic impasse, Don said.
Wang Yi, who arrived Vientiane on Sunday met bilaterally with several Asean ministers including Myanmar’s State Councellor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi to discuss the matter.
He told reporters that China will continue sticking to the “dual-track” approach to solve the South China Sea issue.
The “dual-track” approach — disputes should be resolved peacefully through negotiation between the parties directly concerned, and China and Asean countries should work together to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea, according to state-run Xinhua news agency.
The Chinese top diplomat believed the “dual-track” approach, which complies with the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) and principles of the UN Charter emblematic of international law, serves the common interests and desire of countries in the region, it said.

Speculation rippled across social media after fire trucks and ambulances were seen outside the embassy compound in Myanmar’s largest city, but local officer Zaw Win told AFP “it was not a bomb explosion”.

Asean foreign ministers begin annual discussions in Laos today under intense scrutiny amid rising acrimony over the South China Sea.
A key concern is whether the territorial dispute will further splinter the 10-nation bloc and undermine its relevance.
China lays claim to almost all the resource-rich South China Sea, which is also claimed in part by four Asean states – the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei – as well as Taiwan.
Beijing has vowed to ignore a legally binding ruling the arbitral tribunal at The Hague made on July 12 in a case initiated by the Philippines and which invalidated China’s historical claims to most of the area.
China has pressured its allies within Asean to avoid taking a common position on the growing dispute, which has triggered a military build-up and deepened worries over regional stability.
Asean states, though, are treading carefully, given China’s economic clout. The country is Asean’s largest trading partner, with two-way trade totalling US$472 billion (S$641 billion) last year.
The bloc’s conspicuous silence after the high-profile tribunal ruling has led analysts to believe that its stance after today’s Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Vientiane would be muted at best.
“I don’t think that Asean will somehow miraculously produce a statement on the South China Sea,” Ms Sun Yun from US-based think-tank Stimson Centre told The Sunday Times. That would be “holding the bar too high” as it would require the consensus of all members.
As of yesterday evening, the joint communique to be issued after the meeting was still not finalised, one diplomat told The Sunday Times.
According to Agence France-Presse, Cambodia is opposing a joint statement on the South China Sea issue. “It’s very grave. Cambodia just opposes almost everything, even reference to respect for legal and diplomatic processes which already have been in previous statements,” one South-east Asian diplomat told AFP yesterday.
Today’s Asean meeting would be complemented by discussions tomorrow between the Asean ministers and their regional dialogue partners, including the United States, the European Union, Japan and China, as well as sessions of the Asean Regional Forum and East Asia Summit on Tuesday.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has said he would urge South-east Asian countries to find diplomatic solutions, reported Reuters.
The bloc’s carefully scripted solidarity has been fraying since 2012. At a meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, that year, disagreement over whether the South China Sea issue should be mentioned in a joint statement resulted in the meeting ending without a communique for the first time in Asean’s history.
China, a key source of investment and aid for then Asean chairman Cambodia, was blamed for influencing this outcome.
Laos, which chairs Asean this year, is similarly bound economically to its northern neighbour.
A repeat of the 2012 debacle, former Asean secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan told The Sunday Times, “would reinforce the idea that Asean is wobbling under stress and strain, which would be the new normal in the region”.