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RI continuously pushes for peace in South China Sea: Ministry
Indonesia continues to accelerate peace efforts related to the South China Sea dispute by, among other things, pushing the settlement of an agreement between ASEAN nations and China on the establishment of a Code of Conduct (CoC) for South China Sea territorial disputes, a senior official at the foreign ministry has said
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ndonesia continues to accelerate peace efforts related to the South China Sea dispute by, among other things, pushing the settlement of an agreement between ASEAN nations and China on the establishment of a Code of Conduct (CoC) for South China Sea territorial disputes, a senior official at the foreign ministry has said.
'Indonesia will continue to maintain and expand the major steps forward we have so far achieved and preserve our comfort level and mutual trust, especially in the settlement of the CoC agreement. We hope that this settlement will produce more optimal results,' the ministry's director for ASEAN Cooperation, I Gusti Agung Wesaka Puja, said as quoted by Antara news agency on Thursday.
He explained the results of the ninth meeting between ASEAN and Chinese senior ministers on the implementation of 'Declaration on the Conduct of Parties (DoC)' in Tianjin, China, on Wednesday evening.
'Although there has not been any commitment from China on a deadline for accelerating the settlement of the CoC agreement, they [Chinese authorities] all have shown their commitment to maintaining peace and security in the South China Sea, together with ASEAN. It's a positive step,' said Puja.
He went on to say that previously, China had been somewhat reluctant to discuss the acceleration of a CoC agreement settlement.
'They just wanted to discuss it informally. From 2013 up until now, China has continuously committed to more intensive discussions regarding the CoC settlement, even at the senior official meeting level,' said Puja.
'ASEAN hopes that China will provide some certainty on when the final CoC agreement can be formulated although we are aware that this is not an easy thing to do. For Indonesia, productive results and processes are both important,' he went on.
Puja said the presence of a CoC would create a mutual trust among parties.
Regarding the China-ASEAN senior ministers' meeting in Tianjin, it has also been decided that China would host a joint working group meeting to prepare the tenth DoC senior official meeting in Chengdu in October. All results of the Tianjin meeting will be brought to the ASEAN Post Ministerial Conference on August 5 and at the 18th ASEAN Summit in November. (ebf)(+++)
