SINGAPORE—Southeast Asian nations are eyeing to complete the Single Draft Negotiating Text of the Code of Conduct (COC) next year in a bid to resolve the maritime dispute in the South China Sea.
With the Philippines being co-chair for the COC negotiations, President Duterte also vowed on Wednesday that the country will work closely for the early conclusion of an “effective” and “substantive” COC.
He said this during the meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) with its largest trading partner. The Philippines is also the dialogue coordinator for the Asean-China Dialogue Relations until 2021.
“Asean and China have seen steady progress in the initial phase of the COC negotiations since the announcement of a Single Draft COC Negotiating Text, and looked forward to the completion of the first reading of the Single Draft COC Negotiating Text by 2019,” Duterte said in an Asean-China common statement at the 21st Asean Summit.
Prior to the consolidation of text into a single document, parties have their own versions in the early stages of diplomatic negotiations.
During the 2002 summit, Asean and China agreed to have a code of conduct, amid tensions in the disputed waters.
The President also said that Asean and China will continue to maintain a conducive environment for future rounds of negotiations of the COC.
In his speech, the President also called on all countries, including China, to exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities and “avoid actions that may further complicate the situation,” and to pursue peaceful resolution of disputes in accordance with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Seas.
He also reiterated Asean and China’s commitment to the full and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea in its entirety.
“Asean and China also successfully completed an Asean-China Maritime Exercise for the first time. The exercise is a useful confidence-building measure that strengthens practical cooperation, and builds mutual trust, friendship and understanding among Asean and Chinese navies,” he said.
COC ‘at all costs’
Meanwhile, Duterte also said he will push for the COC in the South China Sea “at all costs.”
Duterte said everything is going well between China and the rest of the world, but noted that the Philippines is tied to a mutual defense treaty with the United States, which keeps it from telling the Western superpower to stay away.
The US had said in the past its commitment to come to the country’s aid, under the MDT, in case of an invasion or armed aggression, is “iron-clad.”
However, Duterte has repeatedly called out Washington for failing to move decisively to stop the decades-long, incremental Chinese occupation of Philippine-claimed maritime features in the SCS—and then belatedly castigating Beijing after Manila won its case in a UN arbitral tribunal in July 2016.
Asean had failed to craft a COC in the past 15 years even under the Philippines’s Asean Summit chairmanship in 2017.
In his intervention during the working dinner on Tuesday, Duterte also said the country will do its part as country coordinator of Asean-China Dialogue Relations until 2021.
“We are committed to work with all concerned parties in the substantive negotiations and early conclusion of an effective Code of Conduct,” he said.
“We, likewise, reaffirm our commitment to the full and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea.
“This includes the peaceful settlement of disputes, the exercise of self-restraint, and the freedom of navigation and overflight in accordance with international law, especially the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea,” he added.
Premier Li: 3 years
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang expressed China’s commitment to work with all Asean countries, including concluding the COC in three years’ time.
He noted that overall peace and stability in the South China Sea has been maintained.
“It is our hope that we can set up a time frame so that in three years’ time, the COC will become a set of rules contributing to
South China Sea [and] will also be conducive to free trade and the further upgrading of our free trade area,” Li said during the Asean-China Summit.
Trade between Asean and China reached $441.6 billion in 2017, accounting for 17.1 percent of Asean’s total merchandise trade.
Foreign direct investment flows from China to Asean amounted to $ 11.3 billion in 2017, or 8.2 percent of total’s Asean’s FDI.