Leaders, ministers and representatives are meeting in the city-state from August 1 to 4 for the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM). / AFP PHOTO / ROSLAN RAHMAN
ASEAN and China agree on need for an effective Code of Conduct on South China Sea, he says
(Eagle News) – Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said that the Philippines has taken over as country coordinator with China for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) dialogue and will be working for an effective Code of Conduct (COC) on the South China Sea, a flashpoint in the region.
“So we are happy to take over as country coordinator of China. We will be doing this job for the next three years,” the head of the Department of Foreign Affairs said after attending a recent ASEAN Summit in Singapore.
Cayetano said that the Philippines’ new role as ASEAN country coordinator with China was an “important job because finally the ASEAN member states and China see eye to eye in the need for an effective COC.”
The COC or Code of Conduct will either help resolve or work around long-standing disputes in the South China Sea.
But what is important, Cayetano said, is that all parties – ASEAN and China – including claimant states will work on coming up with a mechanism where “irritants” will be put aside in one level of the relationship to work on making the South China Sea a region for “peace, stability and development.”
“It is an important job. We’ve not always agreed about the timing or the need for an effective COC but now everyone in the region agrees,” he said.
-Respect for various claimants’ position-
In a press conference Tuesday, August 7, Cayetano explained that all parties, claimant countries in the South China Sea, will not be asked to reverse or change their positions.
“So let me just clear that up. No one is expected to turn his back or her back on their national position. Whatever their stand is — on territorial claims or on sovereignty rights,” he said.
Whatever is the basis of the claim, whether it is in accordance with historical rights, or with the United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Seas, Cayetano said this is not going to be a source of disagreement.
“We don’t expect countries to suddenly see the situation different(ly),” he said.
“But we expect a mechanism where we will be able to deal with each other effectively; put this irritant or dispute in one level of our relationship, but at the same time turn the South China Sea in to a zone of peace, stability and development” he said.
It helps that the Philippines is also a claimant country in the South China Sea, he said.
“It would help that the Philippine is a country coordinator with China. There’s going to be a lot of faith in us, because we are also a claimant state,” he said.
But everybody is looking to the day that ASEAN and China can actually sign an effective code of conduct on the South China Sea.
Cayetano, a former senator before he was appointed as DFA chief, noted that it is better to talk about points where all in ASEAN and China will agree, and this includes maintaining a healthy marine ecology.
“Everyone has a stake in a healthy marine ecology… There’s so much that we can do. Everyone is concerned with a safe marine environment,” he said. (Eagle News Service)