Southeast Asian nations and China have resumed long-stalled talks on a proposed code of conduct in the South China Sea, but observers remain divided on whether Malaysia’s chairmanship of Asean will deliver the breakthrough that has eluded negotiators for more than two decades.
From April 9 to 11, technical working group-level discussions were held in Manila, co-chaired by Malaysia and China. The goal: to advance a long-promised set of rules aimed at preventing clashes in one of the world’s most volatile maritime flashpoints.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo said negotiations were still at an early stage but stressed the need for a “substantive and effective” framework, noting that how it would be implemented remained a separate but essential challenge.
“We should have at least on paper an effective and substantive code,” he said, adding that further rounds of talks were set for later this year and in 2026 – when the Philippines assumes the Asean chairmanship.
The code of conduct, or COC, has been under negotiation since the early 2000s as a way to manage tensions in the South China Sea, which is claimed almost in its entirety by China and contested by several members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations including the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.
