A conference of the Asean Inter-Parliament Assembly is yet to decide
whether or not to discuss a resolution on the South China Sea, Indonesian House
Speaker Marzuki Alie said on Tuesday.
Marzuki, speaking in Senggigi,
Lombok, where the 33rd conference of the group known as AIPA is being held, was
quoted by the Antara state news agency as saying that when the resolution on
the South China Sea was proposed in July, tension was high in the region
between China and several other claimant countries in the area.
However, Marzuki, who is also
currently the AIPA chairman, added that the situation was not conducive to
peace and that countries with overlapping territorial claims in the South China
Sea have not agreed to focus on formulating a code of conduct for the region.
“There are too many pros and
cons,” Marzuki said.
He added that dialogue and
consultations between the various countries involved were better in helping
create a secure and stable region.
The conference, which on Tuesday
entered its third day, set about to determine an agenda and the formation of
committees in the fields of politics, economics and social affairs. Also, it
wanted to seek out women for the joint committee and encourage dialogue with
observers.
The standoff over territorial
disputes between four Asean states — the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and
Malaysia — and China had put the spotlight on the alliance when, for the first
time since its establishment in 1967, it failed to come up with a joint
communique in July.
The joint communique was supposed
to be a base in which to negotiate a code of conduct between Asean and China
regarding the South China Sea. Failure to issue such a code, critics said,
might jeopardize a future relationship as well as threaten political stability
within the region.
Following the July meeting,
Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa embarked on a 36-hour “shuttle
diplomacy” mission to the conflicting countries and was able to get the
countries to agree on six general principles on the issue.
Marty called on fellow Asean
members on Monday to work harder and to leave “negative assumptions” behind in
order to come up with a common position regarding the South China Sea dispute.
Meanwhile, Brunei is offering to
host the 34th conference in September 2014.
The delegation from Brunei
officially made the offer at the plenary of the conference on Tuesday, Antara
said.
The AIPA membership consists of
the 10 members of Asean.
Observer delegations came from
Australia, Belarus, Canada, China, the EU, India, Japan, South Korea and
Russia.
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