MANILA – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China are “politically committed” to concluding the Code of Conduct (COC) on the South China Sea by 2026, Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo said Thursday.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Maritime Security Forum in Manila, the Filipino top diplomat said “everyone has agreed” that they “would like to have a code by 2026”.
“We are all politically committed to achieving, having a code by next year. But we will see. We will try our best,” he said.
Manalo said there are still issues to address and would require the consensus of all 10 ASEAN member states and China.
“As the President said, we still have to address important issues such as the scope of the code, also the nature of the code and its relation to the declaration of the principles adopted in 2002 on the South China Sea,” he said.
In the recent ASEAN-China COC negotiations in Manila, the two parties finally tackled the so-called “milestone issues,” which included the relation of the COC to the DOC.
China has yet to make an explicit commitment that it would back a legally binding COC, which would differentiate it from the non-binding DOC.
Talks on crafting a COC, which is seen to serve as a set of rules to manage tensions in the disputed South China Sea, have been ongoing since 2018 after its framework was adopted and endorsed by the ASEAN and Chinese leaders.
Progress, however, was stalled during the pandemic as the health crisis made in-person meetings virtually impossible to convene. (with report from Priam Nepomuceno/PNA)
