The presence of the China Coast Guard (CCG) persists despite the effort of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) to block them and assist the four main vessels of the second civilian resupply mission of the Atin Ito Coalition to the Bajo de Masinloc or Panatag Shoal in the West Philippine Sea on May 15, 2024. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News/File

MANILA — The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China are “politically committed” to having a binding South China Sea Code of Conduct by 2026, Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo said on Thursday.

“We’re all politically committed in having a code by next year, but we’ll try our best,” Manalo told reporters on the sidelines of the Maritime Security Symposium in Manila.

“Yeah, everyone agreed that we all have a code by 2026. We have to agree,” he answered when asked if China explicitly said it was in favor of having the binding Code of Conduct.

Philippines asserts right in latest negotiations for South China Sea code of conduct

Manalo said countries hope to complete the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea by next year, when the Philippines also hosts the ASEAN Summit.

“We hope and we will do all that we can to try and achieve a successful negotiation,” the foreign affairs secretary said.

“It’s contentious in the sense that there are issues that need to have the consensus of all countries but as the president said, we still have to address issues, such as the scope of the code and the nature of the code, and its relation to the declaration of the code principles adopted in 2022 in the South China Sea,” he added.

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The ASEAN and China pledged in 2002 to create a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea.

The negotiations, however, have suffered delays and have dragged on for more than a decade.

The proposed Code of Conduct aims to set rules to prevent the intensifying tensions in the South China Sea, which China claims in its entirety, from spinning out of control and worsening into a major armed conflict.

Four ASEAN member states — the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Brunei — and Taiwan are involved in the territorial disputes.

 In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague invalidated China’s claims over the West Philippine Sea, the maritime areas on the western side of the Philippines that are within its 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ). 

However, Beijing does not recognize the ruling.

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