By P Prem Kumar
KUALA LUMPUR
The day before an Association of Southeast Asian Nations-China meeting, the country's foreign minister has said that he hopes the Southeast Asian grouping will not practice "double standards" in its handling of suspected land reclamation in the South China Sea.
Wang Yi told reporters on the sidelines of ASEAN's 48th Foreign Ministerial Meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday that he was hoping ASEAN would come up with more constructive discussions on the territorial claim issue.
"I hope there is no double standard, as it is not beneficial to any party," he said, adding that continuous smearing and criticism by claimants would not help in finding solution to the long-standing problem.
China claims almost the entire resource-rich Sea, while overlapping territorial maritime claims involve ASEAN members the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei.
Speaking at a separate press conference, Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said the ministerial meeting - which officially began Tuesday - had deliberated on ways to address erosion of trust and confidence amongst parties amid land reclamations and the escalation of tensions in the area.
Aman said that all 10 ASEAN ministers had urged senior officials to intensify consultations so that the Code of Conduct (CoC) - a set of rules that would put in place mechanisms to avoid conflict - could be established as soon as possible.
He added that ministers had noted progress on consultations towards the establishment of the CoC, in particular an agreement between ASEAN and China to proceed to the next stage of negotiation and discuss the framework, structure and elements of the proposed code.
Aman underlined ministers had also agreed it was imperative that the matter was handled constructively, so that matters did not escalate into a situation that might undermine peace, security and stability.
"We agreed that exercising self-restraint in the conduct of activities that would complicate or escalate tension must be enhanced," he said.
Related issues were also discussed extensively by ASEAN foreign ministers at the plenary and retreat session held after the morning's opening ceremony, he added.
During both meetings, the ministers reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace, security and stability as well as freedom of navigation and flyovers over the sea as an important lane of communication for regional and international trade and commerce.
"We emphasised the importance of full and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, in its entirety," he added.
ASEAN and China inked the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea in 2002 and had agreed to draw up the CoC as a guideline to avoid any friction or conflict in the area.
