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SEAN may have demonstrated unity over the threat of nuclear war in the Korean Peninsula overshadowing last week’s summit proceedings, but the 10-nation bloc seems to have lost steam after the Philippines released a muddled ASEAN statement on the South China Sea (SCS).

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday visited Chinese warships docked in his home, Davao City, a day after he issued a chairman’s statement on behalf of ASEAN that took a soft stance toward China in the area.

In the released chairman’s statement, which concluded the previous week’s activities, Duterte “took note of concerns expressed by some leaders over recent developments in the area.”

The draft chairman’s statement leaked on Saturday morning mentions ASEAN leaders reaffirming the importance of “exercising self-restraint in the conduct of activities, avoiding actions, such as land reclamation and militarization [...] and pursuing the settlement of disputes [...] in accordance with recognized principles of international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea [UNCLOS].”

Any mention of China’s expansionist activities in the South China Sea or UNCLOS was absent from the final chairman’s statement, ignoring last year’s international ruling outlawing China’s claims to the vital trade route.

Duterte seems intent on currying favor with China in a bid to develop his nation with funding from the rising East Asian giant.

Responding to a question about ASEAN’s role in China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative, Duterte said that it should start in ASEAN and would help to broaden the market.

“We can get more help to develop my country,” he said.

OBOR is Beijing’s ambitious attempt to link the Asian continent with Europe and the Pacific. China will host a summit on OBOR later this month, with Duterte and President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo expected to attend.

Separately, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi argued that ASEAN leaders instead focused on pushing efforts to conclude the framework for a code of conduct (COC) in the South China Sea.

“When we discussed the South China Sea issue, our focus this time around was on the strong mandate that our leaders gave to the ministers and senior officials to conclude the framework of the COC,” Retno said on Saturday.

Retno said ASEAN expected to submit a final framework of the COC at the post-ministerial conference between ASEAN and China later this November, so the bloc may start negotiations on the actual content of the agreement, which aims to prevent conflict in the disputed sea.

ASEAN diplomats previously said the COC framework might be completed by midyear, even though actual negotiations have reached more than 15 years, after an ASEAN-China non-binding agreement was introduced in 2002 to discourage hostile acts in the disputed waters.

Meanwhile, regional security analyst Evan Laksmana from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) remained cautious of the development of the COC framework, calling it “false progress.”

“To keep creating milestones — whether the COC principles, modalities and now the framework — is basically a way for both sides to keep moving the goalposts and publicly defend it as progress,” Evan said. “True progress at this point is only a legally-binding and final COC.”