Indonesia warned Wednesday of a "risk of further tensions"
between nations with overlapping claims to swathes of the South China Sea if a
"collective and common approach" is not soon agreed.
Members of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) were split in their views on the maritime
dispute during the Phnom Penh meeting of foreign ministers in July, and the
bloc for the first time in its 45-year history failed to deliver a joint
communique.
"This is an issue that
demands Asean's and China's collective and common approach and action,
otherwise the risk of further tensions are very much ahead of us,"
Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told reporters on the sidelines of
Asean's 45th anniversary celebrations.
"In the absence of a code of
conduct, we may be risking more incidents in the future."
Natalegawa toured the region
after the Asean summit to push for progress on the long-stalled code of
conduct, designed to reduce tensions over fishing, shipping rights and oil and
gas exploration in the South China Sea.
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang
Jiechi will visit Indonesia, Brunei and Malaysia from Thursday, and Natalegawa
said he hoped to "compare notes on where we are on the South China
Sea" with him.
China claims sovereignty over
almost all of the resource-rich sea, which is home to vital shipping lanes, but
the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei have overlapping claims.
Vietnam is scheduled next year to
appoint a secretary general to head Asean after the five-year tenure of
Thailand's Surin Pitsuwan comes to an end.
Vietnam frequently trades
diplomatic barbs with China over oil exploration, fishing rights and the
Spratly and Paracel Islands, which both countries claim as their own.
AFP
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