East Sea "heats up" ASEAN regional forum

The Indonesian Foreign Minister said that ASEAN has reached a high level of consensus and will continue to have a consensus on the East Sea.

The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) opened on the morning of July 2 at the International Convention Center in the capital city of Banda Seri Begawan, Brunei, to discuss hot issues in the region. Particularly prominent is the issue of the East Sea. The participation of major countries such as Russia, the US, China, India, Japan, South Korea, etc. at the ASEAN forum will attract special public attention.

Begawan International Convention Centre, Brunei (Photo: Reuters)

On the agenda of this morning's meeting, 20 ASEAN Ministers and dialogue countries focused on discussing many hot issues such as the situation in the East Sea, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Syria, cyber espionage, etc. In particular, the East Sea issue and current disputes emerged at this Conference.

During the ASEAN conferences, ASEAN and its partners in the past two days also discussed this issue extensively. Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, speaking to the press on the sidelines, also affirmed that ASEAN has reached a high consensus and will continue to reach consensus on the East Sea in this morning's meeting.

“We will continue to have a unified position at the ARF. Together with relevant parties at this forum, we will discuss how to build trust and enhance cooperation on the South China Sea issue. This is an important issue to achieve progress,” said the Indonesian Foreign Minister.

ASEAN dialogue partners, including Russia, the US, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, Bangladesh, etc., all share the same view, expressing hope that the East Sea issues will be resolved by the relevant parties on the basis of the rules of international law, the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea and the 6-point principle of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea DOC. Both ASEAN and the dialogue partners call for the cooperation of the relevant parties and continue negotiations to reach a Code of Conduct of Parties in the East Sea COC.

During this morning's meeting, the Ministers discussed tensions on the Korean peninsula, the situation in Syria and other non-traditional security issues./.

According to VOV - DT