KUALA LUMPUR: Asean member countries and China are identifying common ground to draft a Code of Conduct (CoC) framework for the territorial dispute over the South China Sea.
China Vice-Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said finding the common ground was a step forward in the consultation process following the senior officials’ meeting (SOM) on the implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DoC) last Wedensday in Tianjin, China.
“We had a very successful DoC-SOM meeting in Tianjin. The most crucial points of the meeting were about the agreed papers prepared by the Joint Working Group (JWG).
“We are entering a new stage in revealing crucial and complicated issues, including identifying mutual grounds to draft the framework of the CoC.
“This is a step forward in the consultation process,” he said after attending the Asean Plus Three SOM in Putra World Trade Centre here yesterday, which is part of the series of meetings of the 48th Asean Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and related conferences.
Liu hoped that the discussions on the dispute would be intensified in the coming months and that China was looking forward to working with Asean member countries to push for the implementation of the DoC, as well as on the consultation of the CoC.
“We are confident on that (working with Asean member countries).”
He said the next SOM and JWG meeting would be in October, where the matter would be further discussed.
“We will discuss this issue again in our next SOM and JWG meeting in late October. We will wait for the progress.”