China-ASEAN Consultations on Code of Conduct in the South China Sea

According to Xinhua News Agency, on October 20, the 10th China-ASEAN Senior Officials' Meeting on the Implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) took place in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province in Southwest China.

Illustrative photo. (Source: AFP)

At the conference, Chinese and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) diplomats conducted consultations on the Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).

The official press release of the conference emphasized that the parties share the political will to implement the DOC and move towards reaching consensus on the COC as soon as possible.

The conference updated the action plan for the 2015-2016 period with an agreement on practical maritime cooperation within the DOC framework in the fields of maritime safety, search and rescue, marine research, environmental protection and combating transnational crimes.

Regarding the COC, the parties discussed and drew up a list of core issues as well as an outline of the COC.

The conference assigned a joint working group the task of reviewing and researching these two documents./.

According to Vietnam+