JAKARTA: Indonesia is ready to host negotiations on a code of conduct in the South China Sea, said Indonesia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi on Saturday (Feb 4).
Speaking to reporters after the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers’ Retreat in Jakarta, Mdm Marsudi said that the member countries are committed to concluding negotiations on the code of conduct as soon as possible.
Indonesia is this year’s rotating chair of ASEAN and it wants to use the opportunity to continue the negotiations.
“The commitment of members to conclude the negotiation on the code of conduct as soon as possible is obvious, bearing in mind the need to have a substantive, effective and actionable code of conduct,” said Mdm Marsudi.
Mdm Marsudi said that the next round of negotiations, with Indonesia as ASEAN chair, will take place in March.
China claims much of the South China Sea, but there are overlapping claims by some ASEAN countries.
Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam are also claimant states, and the United States and its allies have also challenged China’s territorial claims.
Indonesia is not a claimant state in the South China Sea but it has clashed with China in the past few years over fishing rights around Natuna Islands, which are near the disputed waters.
ASEAN countries have been trying to negotiate a code of conduct with China for years to resolve disputes and incidents in the South China Sea.
The development of a code of conduct goes back to the 1990s, when ASEAN issued its first statement on the disputed waters.
But negotiations have stalled due to various reasons, most recently because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which made it more difficult to hold in-person meetings.