ASEAN and China consult on East Sea issue

The 20th ASEAN-China Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM) on ASEAN-China Partnership and the 7th Meeting on the Implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and the Official Consultation on the Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC) took place from April 21-22 in Pattaya, Thailand.

Deputy Foreign Minister and Head of ASEAN-Vietnam SOM Pham Quang Vinh led the Vietnamese delegation to attend the above meetings.

Deputy Foreign Minister Pham Quang Vinh answers questions from the press in Bangkok. (Photo: Ha Linh/Bangkok)

Regarding the ASEAN-China Partnership, the two sides reviewed the cooperation and implementation of the outcomes of the 16th ASEAN-China Summit (October 2013) and the ASEAN-China Plan of Action 2011-2015.

At the meeting, the two sides assessed that the ASEAN-China strategic partnership continued to achieve important progress in many areas of cooperation such as economics, politics-security, culture-education... ASEAN countries congratulated China's achievements in these areas; China strongly supports ASEAN in building the Community, promoting its central role in cooperation for peace, security and development in the region.

The two sides highly appreciated the results of the 10th anniversary of the ASEAN-China strategic partnership in 2013, notably the ASEAN-China Special Foreign Ministers' Meeting, the organization of the High-Level Forum to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the ASEAN-China strategic partnership, and the ASEAN Economic Ministers' Economic Cooperation Promotion Program in China.

Two-way trade between ASEAN and China has recently reached over 400 billion USD; China continues to be ASEAN's largest trading partner while ASEAN is China's third largest trading partner; China's total investment in ASEAN has now reached over 100 billion USD. Both sides strive to achieve the target of two-way trade turnover of 500 billion USD by 2015.

At the meeting, the two sides affirmed their determination to further promote the ASEAN-China Strategic Partnership.

The meeting also noted a number of recent proposals by China to strengthen cooperation with ASEAN, including the construction of a Treaty on Good Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation, upgrading the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement (FTA), establishing the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and enhancing maritime cooperation. The meeting is an active and effective preparation for the success of the upcoming annual ASEAN-China Foreign Ministers' Meeting in August 2014.

Regarding the implementation of the DOC and the official consultation on the COC, the two sides emphasized the importance of fully implementing the DOC and promoting efforts to build a COC, in order to contribute to ensuring peace, stability, security and maritime safety in the East Sea.

Regarding the implementation of the DOC, ASEAN emphasized the full implementation of the provisions of the DOC Declaration, including ensuring peace, stability, security and maritime safety in the East Sea; resolving disputes by peaceful means; complying with international law and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea; and implementing the 2014 Work Plan on the basis of the Guidelines for the implementation of the DOC, discussing measures to further promote confidence-building cooperation projects such as search and rescue (SAR), establishing an ASEAN-China maritime hotline, and humanitarian relief.

Regarding the COC, the two sides agreed to promote the initial results achieved at the First Official Consultation (Suzhou, China, September 2013). ASEAN emphasized the need to enter into substantive negotiations on the COC soon, first of all sharing to unify the viewpoints, approaches, and objectives of the COC, and affirming that the COC needs to be a comprehensive set of rules and have higher value than the DOC to better ensure peace, stability, security, and maritime safety in the East Sea.

The two sides also emphasized the need to develop a specific work plan and schedule to speed up the consultation process on the COC. At the same time, ASEAN suggested considering some early implementation measures to promote trust building, prevent and resolve potential incidents such as setting up a hotline and conducting search and rescue.

Regarding the COC discussion mechanism, the two sides continued to affirm that the ASEAN-China Senior Officials Meeting is the official mechanism for building the COC, and the Joint Working Group (JWG) is the mechanism to support and implement the SOM's instructions. The Senior Officials will report the results to the ASEAN-China Annual Foreign Ministers' Meeting in August 2014.

It is expected that in 2014, there will be one more SOM meeting and two ASEAN-China Joint Working Group meetings on DOC and COC.

At the conference, the Vietnamese delegation proactively consulted and actively promoted ASEAN-China dialogue; as well as ASEAN's solidarity and common stance.

Speaking at the meetings, Deputy Minister Pham Quang Vinh highly appreciated the importance of the ASEAN-China strategic partnership as well as the cooperation results achieved between the two sides in recent times; at the same time, he emphasized the importance of ensuring peace, stability, security and maritime safety in the East Sea.

Regarding Vietnam's contribution to this conference, Deputy Minister Pham Quang Vinh shared: "In this conference, the Vietnamese delegation actively consulted and exchanged with countries within the framework of 10 ASEAN countries as well as in the ASEAN-China dialogue. We affirm that Vietnam highly appreciates and attaches great importance to the strategic partnership between the two sides. Vietnam will work with ASEAN countries to promote and deepen the strategic partnership to bring ASEAN-China relations into deep cooperation in all fields from politics, security, defense to economics and socio-culture."

From Vietnam’s perspective, ASEAN and China need to fully implement the DOC, not only to carry out cooperation projects but also to implement the principles and obligations set out for the parties related to the DOC. The parties also need to refrain from further complicating the situation and peacefully resolve disputes. Vietnam also emphasizes the need to soon have a COC, which will inherit from the DOC and further multiply it. The COC needs to be a complete, binding set of rules and supplement the shortcomings of the DOC.

This view has also been shared and supported by ASEAN countries./.

According to VNA