Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Australian counterpart, Malcolm Turnbull, have reaffirmed their shared stance on territorial tensions in the South China Sea, obliquely calling on China to comply with an international tribunal ruling rejecting its territorial claims to much of the waters.
In a roughly hourlong meeting on the fringes of regional gatherings in the Laotian capital, Abe and Turnbull agreed on the importance of maintaining a rules-based order.
According to the Foreign Ministry, the leaders reaffirmed that the South China Sea issue should be resolved peacefully in line with international law, including the July ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, which sided with the Philippines in denying China's claims to vast parts of the area.