Follow-Up: ASEAN and China Fail to Conclude South China Sea Code of Conduct, Philippine Minister Says
Reuters reported on November 15 that Philippine Foreign Minister Ma. Theresa Lazaro told a press conference at the ASEAN summit in Manila on Sunday that ASEAN and China were unable to conclude negotiations on a long-delayed South China Sea code of conduct under the Philippines' chairmanship, despite reaching provisional agreement on about 80 percent of the draft.
"There is no conclusion yet," Lazaro said, adding that several key issues remain unresolved, including whether the code would be legally binding, and that ASEAN countries and China hold different views.
Negotiations have dragged on for more than two decades, and the Philippines, as current chair, had committed to speeding up the talks and concluding the code this year. China's extensive maritime claims overlap with the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. China's Southeast Asian neighbours want the code grounded in international law; Beijing maintains its actions in the South China Sea have been lawful and professional. An international arbitration tribunal ruled in 2016 that China's sweeping claims have no basis under international law, a decision Beijing rejects.
Collin Koh, a senior fellow at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said divisions among ASEAN members, including over the geographical scope of the code, had also slowed negotiations, and that the remaining differences would be difficult to resolve without major concessions.
Singapore will inherit the task of trying to secure agreement when it assumes the ASEAN chairmanship next year.
(Source: Reuters)
Source: Reuters
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：从马尼拉湾望向都会区的马尼拉天际线（资料图）。照片：Patrickroque01 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons，本图已预裁为 16:9。 / Photo: The Metro Manila skyline seen from Manila Bay (file photo). Photo by Patrickroque01, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; pre-cropped to 16:9.
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