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Indonesia offers to host next South China Sea COC talk
Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi reaffirmed Indonesia's support for talks on the Code of Conduct (COC) for the South China Sea, saying the country was ready to host the next round of negotiations.
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Philippine Coast Guard personnel survey several ships believed to be Chinese militia vessels near Sabina Shoal in the South China Sea on April 27. (Handout/Philippine Coast Guard via REUTERS)
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ndonesia has offered to host the next round of negotiations between ASEAN and China on the Code of Conduct (COC) for the South China Sea, after talks were suspended last year amid the pandemic.
The offer was made during a meeting of the foreign ministers of the 10 ASEAN countries and their Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Chongqing, China, on Monday. The event was held to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the partnership between the bloc and China.
Monday’s meeting was the first in-person meeting between representatives of ASEAN and China in over a year. The last time they met was in Vientiane, Laos, in February 2020, when China was already engulfed in the pandemic and some Southeast Asian countries were starting to detect their first cases.
After the Monday meeting, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said both sides had discussed the issue of the South China Sea. She highlighted the importance of managing tensions in the strategic waters for ASEAN-China relations.
She added that both parties had to quickly resume discussions on the COC as progress had been halted. The negotiation was postponed because ASEAN and Chinese officials were unable to meet face-to-face due to COVID-19 restrictions.
“We hope that these negotiations will be completed quickly with effective and substantive results. In this regard, Indonesia is ready to host a negotiation meeting in Jakarta in the near future,” she said.
Read also: ASEAN to jumpstart pandemic-era talks on South China Sea codex
