The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China on Wednesday agreed on the guidelines on implementing the Declaration of Conduct (DOC) in the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea).
The agreement was clinched during talks among senior officials in Bali, Indonesia for the 44th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting.
“This is an important milestone document on the cooperation among China and ASEAN countries," said China Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin after the meeting.
The DOC provides a framework for future deliberations on territorial claims on the islands and ocean space in the South China Sea. It was signed in 2002 during the 8th ASEAN Summit.
The Philippines proposed the adoption of an agreement entitled “Zone of Peace, Freedom, Friendship, and Cooperation in the South China Sea." The agreement would have opposed China’s claims on the Spratly Islands, which they call the Nansha Islands.
In a text message to GMA News, a Philippine official clarified that the proposal was not rejected by the ASEAN.
In its Joint Communiqué, ASEAN noted the proposal with appreciation and added that an ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) with maritime legal experts has been called to study the proposal.
In a statement released Wednesday, ASEAN said that it “[welcomes] the offer of the Philippines to host maritime legal experts meeting in 2011, report to the SOM, and make recommendations to the Foreign Ministers prior to the 19th ASEAN Summit."
Next September, legal experts will be sent to the Philippines to study the proposal and suggest an agreement that would differentiate the disputed from the non-disputed areas in the South China Sea.
One of the central issues discussed in the Foreign Ministers Meeting is the dispute over the South China Sea that includes the Spratlys group, which China, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines have also claimed wholly or in part as their own.
On Tuesday, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono urged ASEAN to come up with guidelines to the DOC, adding that “things do not necessarily have to be this slow."
