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ASEAN to jumpstart pandemic-era talks on South China Sea codex
Officials from China and ASEAN nations are revisiting the idea of negotiating in person a set of binding guidelines to prevent all-out conflict in the South China Sea, despite COVID-19 restrictions.
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Filipino fishermen sail past US coastguard ship Bertholf during a joint exercise between Philippine and US coastguards near Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, on May 14, 2019. Two Chinese coastguard ships monitored the exercise. (AFP/Ted Aljibe)
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fter more than a year without progress, ASEAN and China are looking into meeting again in person to continue negotiations for a Code of Conduct (COC) on the South China Sea, which is hoped to be concluded this year.
ASEAN foreign ministers met online last week to discuss various regional matters including progress on the COC – a requirement from the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties (DOC) in the South China Sea that remains elusive nearly two decades later.
Officials from both sides were looking at the possibility of having their negotiators meet in person, as opposed to engaging virtually, which has become the new norm under the COVID-19 pandemic, said Sidharto Suryodipuro, the Foreign Ministry’s director general for ASEAN affairs.
“There’s an urgency to continue the talks because of the delays in the past year,” he told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.
Read also: South China Sea rules cannot be negotiated virtually: Indonesian official
The COC underpins efforts to prevent all-out conflict among South China Sea claimants, who are locked in overlapping territorial disputes in the busy trade route.
China has made sweeping yet illegal claims over much of the sea, including in areas also claimed by Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan. Indonesia, while not a claimant itself, has protested against China’s forays into waters under its economic jurisdiction.
