Flurry of meetings planned for FM

Foreign Minister Wang Yi will travel to Laos on Sunday for a series of annual regional meetings, an occasion observers said to enhance maritime cooperation and maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea.

The visit follows Beijing's rejection last week of the ruling in the arbitration case unilaterally brought by the Philippines that challenges China's sovereignty in the South China Sea.

Wang will take part in the ASEAN-China Foreign Ministers Meeting, the ASEAN-China, Japan and South Korea Foreign Ministers Meeting, the East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers Meeting and the ASEAN Regional Forum Foreign Ministers Meeting, the ministry announced on its website on Thursday.

US Secretary of State John Kerry will be in the Laotian capital of Vientiane for the ASEAN Regional Forum and related ministerial meetings.

Japan's KyodoNews Agency has reported that Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida will also attend ASEAN-related meetings and meet with Wang.

Chinese experts say it is possible that Wang will meet with Kerry and Kishida on the sidelines of the meetings, but the Foreign Ministry has not confirmed that.

The US and Japan have engaged in a series of provocations since the July 12 arbitration ruling in The Hague, in an attempt to pressure China into accept the result.

"It is necessary for highlevel officials from Beijing and Washington to continue communicating with each other and to boost mutual understanding," said Jia Duqiang, a senior Southeast Asian studies researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.