Indonesia has circulated a draft of code of conduct (CoC) on the South
China Sea to ASEAN foreign ministers that comprises elements of conflict
prevention and conflict management for the maritime territorial dispute.
“We’re creating a momentum for
progress regarding the South China Sea issue. This is the first time that the
ASEAN ministers have received the draft of code of conduct,” Foreign Minister
Marty Natalegawa said after the ASEAN Informal Meeting on the sidelines of the
UN General Assembly in New York in the US on Thursday.
Elements of the CoC were
discussed at the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Phnom Penh in July.
Indonesia took the initiative to
promulgate a CoC comprising confidence building and conflict prevention
measures and conflict management measures, should conflict or an incident
arise, to prevent situations from worsening.
According to Marty, there has not
yet been a response to the draft, as the 10 ASEAN ministers just received it.
They will consult on the draft before the ASEAN Summit begins in November.
In the meeting on Thursday, which
was the first time ministers convened since Phnom Penh, the officials also
endorsed a six-point agreement on South China Sea dispute that was initiated by
Indonesia. The agreement will be incorporated into a joint communiqué,
something that ASEAN famously failed to issued in Cambodia.
The endorsement of the agreement
means that it should be followed up soon by preparing an ASEAN-China dialogue
to discuss the CoC. However, Marty said officials currently had no plans to
meet China to discuss the code.
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang
Jiechi said that Beijing expected that Indonesia would maintain its
constructive role in creating an appropriate situation for China and ASEAN’s
member nations involved in the dispute to move forward in easing tension.
Beijing claims almost all the
South China Sea, a body of water believed to hold rich reserves of oil and gas
that stretches from China to Indonesia and from Vietnam to the Philippines.
ASEAN member nations Vietnam, the
Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia claim parts of the sea.
China was initially
less-than-enthusiastic with the process of deliberations surrounding the code
of conduct.
“However, it [China] has shifted
its position, after we tried to create a comfort level for conflicting parties
to start a dialogue. It will proceed naturally, without any pressure,” Marty
previously said.
China has agreed to implement the
Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, the non-binding
agreement that Beijing signed and ASEAN member nations agreed to in 2002.
The CoC is intended as a
mechanism to implement the declaration.
“It is like the rules of the
road. What has been discussed in the code of conduct actually has been promoted
and implemented as regional norms. But we want to codify it [the declaration]
so it can be a comprehensively binding,” Marty said.
Any conflict in the South China
Sea, which sits astride one of the world’s busiest trade routes, would have
global repercussions, given the US$5 trillion in shipborne trade carried
through its waters each year.
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