Yasay: ASEAN, China eye framework code of conduct in South China Sea by mid-2017

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China are hoping to conclude by mid-2017 a framework for a code of conduct in the South China Sea to ease tensions in the disputed waters, Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay said Wednesday.

Yasay said the Philippines hopes that such framework, which will include key elements and principles for a code of conduct, will be one of the highlights of the Philippines’ chairmanship of the ASEAN this year.

“We will intensify efforts for the completion of the framework by the first half of the year,” Yasay told a press conference. “We continue to have discussions with officials and talks are ongoing.”

For years, the 10-member ASEAN bloc has aspired to hammer a regional code with China that would prevent conflicting territorial claims in the vast potentially-oil rich region from erupting into violent confrontations or worse, an economically-devastating major conflict.

The Philippines had wanted any such new pact to be legally-binding and include a provision that would segregate disputed from non-disputed areas in the South China Sea and establish a dispute-settlement mechanism.

Such a goal has acquired urgency due to series of confrontations between China on the one hand and the Philippines and Vietnam on the other in disputed South China Sea offshore territories.

China, which claims nearly 90 percent of the waters in its entirety, was also accused of militarizing the South China Sea after it was reported that it has installed missiles in one of the artificial islands it built on the waters.

In July, an international court in The Hague, Netherlands invalidated China’s historical claim over the South China Sea – a decision that angered Beijing.

Since then, China has used diplomacy to keep stability in the region while ignoring the tribunal ruling, an offshoot of a case filed by the Philippines in January 2013.

Cooperative

Yasay said China is cooperative in the discussions and welcomes the completion of a code of conduct.

“They are part of the discussions now. We are sitting down with China. China will be approving it. It is an ASEAN-China document, pursuant to 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties on the South China Sea,” Yasay said.

The DOC is a nonbinding political accord signed in 2002 by China and ASEAN members Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar that would precede the proposed regional Code of Conduct.

It discourages aggressive actions and bars construction of new structures in the contested region that could spark armed conflicts.

However, many regard the 2002 accord as lacking in teeth and a dispute-settlement scheme to effectively deal with the territorial disputes, sparking calls for a more effective and legally-binding Code of Conduct.

“We are now way past the implementation of the DOC. We are now going into this new level, this new phase. The formulation of the code of conduct as mandated by the DOC,” Yasay said.

Asked to provide details on the framework, Yasay said: “The matter of formulating and what will be covered in this code of conduct is a matter that is precisely being discussed right now. I would not want to preempt, revealing what is discussed because even I myself would not know it at this point. That parties that are talking about it are talking about it.”

“When the DOC was signed in 2002, the objective was to complete this with agreeing and formulating a code of conduct and that is what we are trying to achieve and I hope will be achieved by mid-2017,” Yasay said. — RSJ, GMA News