PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia’s voice on the issue in the South China Sea has helped bring two world powers to discuss on maintaining peace and security in the area.
Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had highlighted the issue at the recent Asean-China Summit held in conjunction with the 31st Asean Summit and Related Summits in Manila.
Following this, Anifah said China and the United States had agreed to discuss the Code of Conduct (CoC) in South China Sea next year.
"The CoC implementation must continue to ensure peace and stability as well as freedom of navigation and aviation over the South China Sea.
“We hope it can be implemented as soon as possible,” he told reporters at post-Asean Summit special interview, yesterday.
The CoC is one of the elements agreed by the Asean countries and China by way of the Declaration on the Conduct (DoC) of Parties in the South China Sea.
The CoC framework was adopted in August during the Asean Foreign Ministers Meeting.
Anifah said during the summit, Najib and other Asean members also highlighted the escalating conflict in the Korean peninsula and called on North Korea to drop its nuclear weapons programme indefinitely.
"Malaysia hopes that North Korea will return to the negotiating table to ensure peace and stability in the region.
“Measures should also be taken to prevent Pyongyang from pursuing its weapons programme that violated United Nations (UN) resolutions.
“We hope that China can influence North Korea to attend the talk,” he said.
Anifah said Najib had also touched on the palm oil issue which was supported by Indonesian President Joko Widodo on the discrimination by the European parliament against palm oil being marketed in the European Union market.
The issues were raised at the Asean-EU Summit which was also attended by European Council president Donald Tusk.
Anifah said the palm oil issue affected over 600,000 smallholders in Malaysia and more than 17.5 million smallholders in Indonesia.
"Tusk assured that he would look into the matter and seek a short-term solution to the issue," he said.
Malaysia and Indonesia contributed more than RM57 billion worth of global palm oil production last year.
Last April, the European parliament approved a resolution stating that only sustainable palm oil would be imported by the EU after 2020.