Calls emerge for ASEAN to walk away from negotiations with Beijing over South China Sea Code of Conduct amid recent altercations in the vast and resource-rich sea lane
The face-off is the latest in a series of recent incidents between China and a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in the resource-rich sea lane, raising more questions about the fate of a Code of Conduct that the regional bloc and Beijing have been trying to negotiate for more than two decades.
"I think it’s time to call it quits" on the ASEAN-China COC negotiations, Jay Batongbacal, a Filipino expert on the South China Sea at the University of the Philippines, wrote on social media following the latest water cannon firing by China. “Twenty-four years have passed, and the Philippine side has not only failed to tow away the warship but also attempted to repair and reinforce it on a large scale to achieve permanent occupation of the Ren’ai Reef,” the spokesperson added, using the Chinese term for the Second Thomas Shoal.
In recent months, incidents of close encounters between the Chinese and Philippine Coast Guard, have become more frequent. "For the record, we will never abandon Ayungin Shoal," Marcos Jr's National Security Council spokesman Jonathan Malaya was quoted as saying, using the Philippine name for Second Thomas Shoal.The dispute and competing claims over the South China Sea are decades old.
Amid the recent incidents, ASEAN foreign ministers met with Chinese senior diplomat Wang Yi in Jakarta in July and agreed on the guidelines"to accelerate negotiations for the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea ".
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