By David Brunnstrom and Ben Blanchard

WASHINGTON/BEIJING, July 12 (Reuters) – An worldwide tribunal’s ruling denying China’s claims within the South China Sea will “intensify conflict and even confrontation,” Beijing’s ambassador to the United States mentioned on Tuesday.

The ambassador, Cui Tiankai, additionally advised a world discussion board in Washington that Beijing stays dedicated to negotiations with different events in disputes over the very important commerce route.

In a case that was seen as a check of China’s rising energy and its financial and strategic rivalry with the United States, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague dominated China had breached the Philippines’ sovereign rights by endangering its ships and fishing and oil initiatives within the energy-rich area.

The Chinese diplomat blamed the rise in stress within the area on the United States’ “pivot” towards Asia up to now few years. Cui mentioned the arbitration case “will most likely open the door of abusing arbitration procedures.

“It will certainly undermine and weaken the motivation of states to engage in negotiations and consultations for solving their disputes,” Cui mentioned. “It will certainly intensify conflict and even confrontation.”

China boycotted the arbitration hearings and described them as a farce. Legal consultants and Asia coverage specialists mentioned China risked violating worldwide regulation if it continued to strike a defiant tone and ignored the ruling.

The United States, which China has accused of fueling tensions and militarizing the area with patrols and workout routines, mentioned the ruling ought to be handled as ultimate and binding.

“We certainly would urge all parties not to use this as an opportunity to engage in escalatory or provocative action,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest advised reporters in a briefing.

The ruling is important as it’s the first time {that a} authorized problem has been introduced within the dispute. The courtroom has no energy of enforcement, however a victory for the Philippines may spur Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei to file related instances on their claims to the waters.

China’s Foreign Ministry rejected the tribunal’s ruling, saying its folks had greater than 2,000 years of historical past within the South China Sea, that its islands did have unique financial zones and that it had introduced to the world its “dotted line” map in 1948.

Ambassador Cui advised the CSIS discussion board that China “will do everything possible to safeguard the unimpeded flow of commerce and stop any attempt to destabilize the region.”

CROSSROADS

The Philippines mentioned it was finding out the ruling.

“We call on all those concerned to exercise restraint and sobriety,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay advised a information convention.

U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby mentioned Washington has seen indicators in latest weeks of continued militarization by China within the South China Sea.

President Barack Obama’s prime Asia coverage adviser, Daniel Kritenbrink, mentioned the United States had little interest in stirring tensions within the South China Sea as a pretext for involvement within the area.

“We have an enduring interest in seeing territorial and maritime disputes in the Asia Pacific, including in the South China Sea, resolved peacefully, without coercion and in a manner that is consistent with international law,” Kritenbrink mentioned at a discussion board of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

U.S. ally Australia warned towards “unilateral actions” by any claimants.

“Australia will continue to exercise our international law rights to freedom of navigation and overflight, and support the right of others to do so,” Foreign Minister Julie Bishop mentioned in a press release.

International regulation consultants described the ruling as a authorized blow to Beijing’s claims within the disputed waters and one which introduced the United States, China and Southeast Asia to a harmful crossroads.

“This is a tactical victory for the Philippines and a strategic defeat for international law,” mentioned Chas Freeman, a former U.S. diplomat who was then-President Richard Nixon’s interpreter on his historic journey to China in 1972.

“This decision has left the issue in the condition where it can only be resolved by the use of force. There is no diplomatic process underway to settle claims, and now there’s no longer a legal process,” Freeman mentioned.

Julia Guifang Xue, a professor of worldwide regulation at Shanghai Jiao Tong University mentioned that given Beijing’s sensitivity about sovereignty and safety “we won’t be surprised to see some kind of renewed effort by China to consolidate its claim in the area.”

U.S. officers have beforehand mentioned they feared China might reply to the ruling by declaring an air protection identification zone within the South China Sea, because it did within the East China Sea in 2013, or by stepping up its constructing and fortification of synthetic islands.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon referred to as on all events to resolve the disputes in a “peaceful and amicable manner through dialog and in conformity with international law.”

China claims many of the energy-rich waters via which about $5 trillion in ship-borne commerce passes yearly.

Finding for the Philippines on numerous points, the courtroom mentioned there was no authorized foundation for China to say historic rights to sources inside its so-called nine-dash line, which covers nearly 90 % of the South China Sea.

None of China’s reefs and holdings within the Spratly Islands entitled it to a 200-mile unique financial zone, it added.

The judges acknowledged China’s refusal to take part, however mentioned they sought to take account of China’s place from its statements and diplomatic correspondence.

Taiwan, which maintains that the island it occupies, Itu Aba, is legally the one island amongst a whole lot of reefs, shoals and atolls scattered throughout the seas, mentioned it didn’t settle for the ruling, which significantly impaired Taiwan’s territorial rights within the 3.5 million sq km sea.

Fellow claimant Malaysia mentioned it believed disputes might be resolved by diplomatic and authorized processes.

A U.S. official who helps set the administration’s Asia insurance policies mentioned that confronted with the prospect of constant Chinese assertiveness, it is crucial for nations within the area and for the United States to keep away from provocative actions and go away the door open for Beijing to pursue peaceable options “and avoid making matters worse.”

He additionally mentioned, nonetheless, that the United States should honor its protection commitments within the Pacific and reassure the Philippines, Vietnam and China’s different neighbors that it could not abandon them or Obama’s pledge to commit extra sources to Asian safety.

(Additional reporting by Anthony Deutsch, Thomas Escritt in Amsterdam, Enrico Dela Cruz and Martin Petty in Manila, Megha Rajagopalan in Beijing, Tim Kelly in Tokyo, John Walcott, David Brunnstrom, Yara Bayoumy, Jeff Mason in Washington, JR Wu in Taipei and Greg Torode in Hong Kong; Editing and writing Lincoln Feast and Nick Macfie; Editing by Mike Collett-White and Grant McCool)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016.