ASEAN, China agree to speed up talks on South China Sea

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) said on Thursday China had agreed to speed up discussions on the disputed South China Sea.

 

The South China Sea dispute was high on the agenda of a regional meeting in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.

 

China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also have overlapping claims.

 

Malaysia chaired the meeting of 27 foreign ministers of the ASEAN Regional Forum.

 

The ASEAN members involved in the claims wanted to discuss the matter collectively but that request was rejected by China.

 

At the closing ceremony, Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said that China had agreed to hold the next level of talks.

 

"And on the CoC (code of conduct) ASEAN member states and China have recently agreed to proceed to the next stage of negotiation and to discuss the framework, structure, and the element of CoC," said Anifah.

Joint Communique of the 48th Amm-final

 

 

Malaysia said it had also held talks with Russia, which recently vetoed a United Nations Security Council draft resolution enabling an international tribunal to prosecute those suspected of downing a Malaysia Airlines passenger plane in Ukraine last year.

 

"We took note of each others' position on the outcome of the resolution of the MH17 tabled on 29th July 2015 in the United Nations Security Council. I had reiterated Malaysia's position that the intention from the very beginning is to seek justice for all innocent victims and to pursue accountability from the perpetrators on the downing of MH17," said Anifah.

 

Flight MH17 was shot down in July 2014 with 298 passengers on board, two-thirds of them Dutch.

 

It crashed in Ukrainian territory held by Russian-backed separatists.  — Reuters