China and South-East Asian countries have made progress on a South China Sea pact but won’t be able to conclude decades of negotiations this year as agreed, three regional diplomats said.
China and the Association of South-East Asian Nations began negotiating the so-called “code of conduct” in 2005 to prevent occasional confrontations in the disputed waters from turning into a major conflict.
The accord mainly calls for self-restraint and discourages aggressive acts that could spark clashes in the waterway that is a key global trade route.
After years of closed-door negotiations, which at times were delayed due to clashes in the contested waters, China and Asean agreed in 2023 to speed up the negotiations and conclude the talks by this year.
Three senior South-East Asian diplomats with direct knowledge of the negotiations said that after the final round of this year’s talks last month, China and Asean have provisionally agreed on about 80% of all the paragraphs that will be included in the agreement.
The last major sticking points are the geographic scope to be covered by the agreement, the definition of sensitive terms and whether the accord should be legally binding or not, according to the three diplomats.
They spoke on condition of anonymity and without elaborating because they were not authorised to discuss the issues in public.
Negotiations will have to continue next year, when Asean’s leadership rotates to Singapore. The Philippines, which led the bloc this year, initiated more meetings, at least once a month, which effectively provided more time for negotiators to try to resolve issues, the diplomats said.
China and Malaysia, which currently oversees Asean’s overall relations with Beijing, jointly led at least 10 major rounds of negotiations this year.
The status of the negotiations on the proposed agreement, as well as continuing incidents in the South China Sea, will be high on the agenda when Asean leaders hold an annual summit in Manila starting this weekend. They will engage with leaders of Asian and Western nations, including the United States and China, after their meeting. — AP
