South China Sea: Philippines urges ASEAN to adopt COC

On May 26, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. stressed the need to speed up the adoption of the Code of Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (COC) to prevent miscalculations at sea.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. attends the 46th ASEAN Summit held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on May 26. (Source: ABS-CBN)

GMA Network quoted President Marcos' speech at the plenary session of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as saying: ''We emphasize the urgent need to expedite the adoption of a legally binding Code of Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (COC) in this region.

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This is to protect maritime rights, promote stability and prevent miscalculations, he said.

Earlier, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced that member countries of the regional bloc and China agreed to complete the COC next year despite controversial issues that have hindered the formation of this Code.

In August 2018, ASEAN and China agreed on a single draft of the COC and an agreement was reached in November 2018 that both sides would complete the document within three years, starting from 2019. Since then, no final document has been agreed upon.

The proposed COC aims to set out rules to prevent the growing dispute in the South China Sea from spiraling out of control and worsening into a major armed conflict.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/bien-dong-philippines-hoi-thuc-asean-thong-qua-coc-315584.html