China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) will soon hammer out the most contentious provisions of the mechanics for the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea, a senior Philippine diplomat said.
Daniel Espiritu, assistant secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs for Asean Affairs, said China and Asean have already agreed on the text of the preamble of the Code of Conduct when the Philippines was coordinator of the negotiations.
“Right now, negotiations are continuing. We are now on the general provisions,” Espiritu said. “Hopefully, in the next few months we will talk about the mechanics of the code of conduct.”
Of the 10 Asean members, five are are claiming the whole or parts of the South China Sea — i.e. Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and lately Indonesia. China, as well as its renegade province Taiwan, are claiming the entire South China Sea.
Negotiations to have a set of rules of engagement in the South China Sea have been on the table between Asean and China for more than 10 years now, after foreign ministers signed the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties was signed in 2002. The declaration simply pledged to peacefully settle their differences and “exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities that would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability.”
However, talks bogged down as China and individual Asean members could not agree on provisions they believe could jeopardize their claims. As a result, China continues its artificial island building spree in the South China Sea and incidents of near collision occur more frequently involving Chinese, Filipino and Vietnamese fishermen and Coast Guards.
“Seeing from this huge backlog, whatever slow progress we are achieving right now is already quite a significant progress compared to the last 15-20 years,” Espiritu said.
He explained that the slow negotiations is partly attributed to getting a consensus on “each and every line” of the draft COC document.
“We have to be very careful about this. Because this will be used in the South China Sea afterwards. There are many things to consider. Our interests, many countries’ interests,” he said, adding that issues such as rules of engagement may have an impact on sovereign rights and sovereign issues of each of the 11 countries.
He said provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREG), Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), International Maritime Organization (IMO) regulations and other international law governing the sea are being used as bases in the drafting of the mechanics.
Image credits: National Task Force-West Philippine Sea via AP