Newly inaugurated Asean Secretary-General Le Luong Minh of Vietnam

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is seeking early talks with China to discuss a code of conduct to manage tensions over the disputed South China Sea, the bloc’s new chief.

China claims most of the South China Sea, including a vital shipping lane and resource-rich areas. The Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei have overlapping claims in the area, as does Taiwan.

“ASEAN should speed up efforts towards an early start of negotiations with China to achieve an early conclusion of a code of conduct on the South China Sea,” ASEAN Secretary-General Le Luong Minh said.

In 2011, ASEAN and China agreed on a non-binding set of guidelines to allow dialogue and cooperation during talks on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.

A binding code of conduct is aimed at reducing the chance of conflict among the claimants.

Mr Minh also vowed to push ASEAN to move ahead in launching the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015.

“Despite the many challenges, I fully believe that ASEAN will emerge triumphant.

“The Asean Secretariat will continue to play active roles in supporting and coordinating with member states to help ease and drive the establishment of the ASEAN Community,” Mr Minh said.

“The next five years will be exciting and critical ones. We in the secretariat are prepared to work closely with ASEAN member states to make sure we are able to deliver our major commitments and aims,” he said.

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• East Asian cooperation: Is Japan falling behind China? (chinadailymail.com)
• China might be moving closer to ASEAN on South China Sea. (chinadailymail.com)
• Asean demands maritime talks on South China Sea (chinadailymail.com)

Categories: Politics & Law

Tags: ASEAN, Brunei, China, Jakarta, Le Luong Minh, South China Sea, Surin Pitsuwan, Vietnam