South China Sea code talks 70 per cent complete, Philippine official says
Outstanding questions include the code’s legal status and geographic coverage, with no confirmation that negotiations will finish during the Philippines’ ASEAN chairmanship.
Negotiations between ASEAN and China on a proposed South China Sea Code of Conduct have reached 70 per cent completion, according to Philippine Foreign Assistant Secretary Dominic Xavier Imperial. He gave the assessment at a briefing ahead of the main ASEAN Summit on Nov. 15.
Imperial explained that the figure measured progress across the negotiations as a whole, not how many draft paragraphs had won approval. He did not identify the provisions still being debated and could not confirm whether an agreement would be reached before the Philippines’ chairmanship ends.
Foreign Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro had previously listed four unresolved matters: whether the code would be legally binding, its geographical coverage, how it would relate to the 2002 declaration and its terms of reference.
ASEAN and China set a 2026 target for completing the code when they agreed in 2023 to speed up talks. Negotiators have held monthly meetings since January during the Philippine chairmanship. President Marcos had earlier said he wanted the agreement finalised during the summit.
The Philippine position is that the code must align with international law, especially the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, while preserving the rights of countries outside the agreement. The Philippines first proposed a code in 1992; ASEAN and China adopted a nonbinding declaration a decade later.
