'Milestone document' to help maintain peace and stability

BEIJING - China and Southeast Asian nations agreed on Wednesday on a "milestone document", a preliminary set of guidelines to resolve disputes in the South China Sea, and vowed to cooperate in marine environmental protection and safety of navigation.

A consensus was reached at a meeting between senior officials from China and the 10 ASEAN member states on implementing the 2002 Declaration of Conduct in the South China Sea (DOC).

During the discussions, Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said that the parties concerned should focus on conducting practical cooperation within the framework of the DOC.

According to the Foreign Ministry, China has made several proposals for further cooperation, including the convening of a symposium on free navigation in the South China Sea.

Another proposal suggests establishing three special committees covering research and environmental protection, navigational safety and search and rescue operations, and combating transnational crimes at sea.

"The draft guidelines are an important milestone document for cooperation between China and ASEAN countries," Liu told reporters after the meeting on the Indonesian island of Bali.

Pham Quang Vinh, Vietnam's assistant foreign minister, said the draft guidelines are a good start to continue a dialogue that promotes stability and confidence in the region.

The draft will be submitted to a meeting of foreign ministers on Thursday for endorsement.

It was the first time since 2007 that senior officials from China and ASEAN have held talks solely on the South China Sea issue.

The Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam have competing claims of sovereignty over some islands in the South China Sea, which have historically been Chinese territory.

The Philippines and Vietnam claimed in recent months that Chinese vessels disrupted their energy exploration activities. Both the Philippines and Vietnam sought the backing of the US, which said it wants to keep international maritime traffic free from interference.

China acknowledges some of the incidents took place in its waters.

In the latest development, a group of Filipino lawmakers flew on Wednesday to a Philippine-occupied island in the South China Sea to assert their country's claim.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said China "strongly protests" the landing on the Chinese territory.

On Tuesday, Chinese embassy spokesman Sun Yi said that the landing goes against the spirit of the 2002 accord between China and ASEAN, which is non-binding.

The trip "serves no purpose but to undermine peace and stability in the region and sabotage the China-Philippine relationship," Sun said in a statement.

According to the guidelines, progress in implementing agreed activities and projects under the DOC "shall be reported annually" to an ASEAN-China ministerial meeting, Kyodo News reported.

The draft has not yet been formally released but there were reports quoting unnamed diplomats as saying that it had been watered down to contain more generalities than specifics.

Analysts also noted that differences remain between ASEAN and China. For example, ASEAN wants negotiations on South China Sea disputes to be held in a multilateral framework while China insists on bilateral talks.

Tong Xiaoling, China's ambassador to ASEAN, said the consensus helps maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea.

"We have spent nine years on working through differences and reaching a final consensus. Some countries tried to use ASEAN in its entirety to discuss (territorial) disputes with China, but this does not help solve the problem and only makes it more complicated."

Li Guoqiang, deputy head of the Research Center for Chinese Borderland History and Geography at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the guidelines are an initial set of steps toward a more conclusive declaration. There is still a long way to go to draw a code of conduct to govern activities in the area.

AP and Reuters contributed to this story.

China Daily

(China Daily 07/21/2011 page1)