F

oreign ministers from ASEAN member countries have expressed their concerns about rising regional tensions in relation to developments in the South China Sea issue.

ASEAN'€™s deputy secretary-general for the ASEAN Political-Security Community, Nyan Lynn, said Thursday that the foreign ministers had reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace, stability and security as well as freedom of navigation in '€” and flying above '€” the South China Sea (SCS).

'€œThe foreign ministers agreed to intensify talks with China on measures and mechanisms to ensure and further enhance dialogue on the South China Sea issue,'€ Lynn told reporters during a media briefing at the ASEAN Secretariat in South Jakarta.

Lynn was giving a media advisory in relation to the recent 47th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting, which was held in Myanmar on Aug. 5-10.

He said the ministers had urged all related parties to employ self-restraint and carry out appropriate actions with regard to the situation in the South China Sea.

He added that the ministers had advised concerned parties to resolve the dispute through friendly dialogue as well as peaceful talks and negotiations in accordance with international laws, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The ministers had also taken notes related to the Triple Action Plan produced by the Philippine foreign minister and other similar proposals by other ASEAN foreign ministers in the South China Sea dispute, he added.

The Triple Action Plan, created in 2002, pushed for a moratorium on provocative actions as the immediate approach to solving the dispute by calling for the full and effective implementation of the Declaration of Conduct (DoC) of Parties in the South China Sea.

'€œThe ministers also agreed to intensify consultations with China to ensure substantive negotiations for an early conclusion of the Code of Conduct [CoC] in the South China Sea,'€ Lynn said.

Lynn said ASEAN ministers had worked closely with China to finalize the structure and substance of the CoC in the South China Sea dispute, including concrete elements to promote a peaceful solution.
He added that the ministers were looking forward to a substantive response from China on the CoC at the 12th ASEAN-China meeting in October in Bangkok, Thailand.

Meanwhile, Lynn also said that the Commission for the Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone (SEANWFZ)'€™s working group had made progress in implementing the action plan for the Bangkok Treaty in July for the 2013-2017 period.

He said the working group had carried out discussions with some nuclear weapon states and discussed the proposal by France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States on signing the SEANWFZ protocol.

Lynn said that the Big Four countries also agreed not to make any national statements but to further ratification of the protocol.

The treaty obliges state parties not to develop, manufacture, acquire or have control over nuclear weapons, stations, and use them inside or outside the treaty zone.

'€œThe commission agreed to give momentum on this new development as well as continue
commitment of the new governing states to signing the protocol,'€ he said. (put)