THE completion of the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea is one of the key goals of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to maintain peace and progress in the region, Malacañang said on Tuesday.
The finalization of the COC between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and China is one of the expected highlights of the Philippines’ chairmanship of Asean this year.
Asean is composed of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Timor-Leste, Thailand and Vietnam.
“We know that this is one of the things the president wants to be finalized [under his Asean chairmanship],” Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary Claire Castro said in a briefing.
“Because what the president wants is to have good relations with all countries, and whatever agreement can be made for the peace of the region, that is what the president wants,” Castro said in Filipino.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro earlier said that Asean and China are “heavily invested” in the finalization in 2026 of the COC, which has dragged on for the past 17 years over some contentious issues.
Lazaro also said the COC “should be within the ambit of the principles of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
The negotiation for a COC stemmed from the need to address mounting tension in the 1990s amid the overlapping claims in the contested Spratly islands in the South China Sea.
