TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
SCS code of conduct unlikely concluded on time due to lack of ASEAN unity
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Chinese coast guard vessels fire water cannons at Philippine resupply vessel Unaizah May 4 as it makes its way to the Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea on March 5, 2024. (Reuters/Adrian Portugal)
A
lack of unity among ASEAN nations is regarded as the core stumbling block to immediately concluding the long-awaited code of conduct (COC) in the South China Sea, which had been expected to establish a guiding framework for preventing an open conflict in the troubled waters.
ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn revealed recently that the negotiations between the association and China would be completed by next year, but many remain doubtful.
Dafri Agussalim, the executive director of the ASEAN Studies Center at Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in Yogyakarta, told The Jakarta Post that each ASEAN member seemed to have its own vested interests in China’s economic influence, putting shared interests behind.
“I’m not too confident about the deadline. You can see that each ASEAN member has its individual interests that it puts ahead of the association’s, which eventually affects all internal negotiations. This is clear in, say, the Myanmar case as well,” Dafri said.
The Myanmar political crisis, which has now entered its third year, has put considerable pressure on ASEAN as calls for the association to broker peace have been met with lackluster results. Analysts have pointed to disagreements between ASEAN members, some of which are widely suspected of being sympathetic to Naypyidaw’s illegal junta, as being among the chief causes of the association’s perceived sluggish response.
Read also: Whither ASEAN in the South China Sea?
Dafri further mentioned that ASEAN members’ participation in counter-China military exercises might also send Beijing a signal that the association was not sincere in its diplomatic negotiations.
