Territory - South China Sea

Treaty

The foreign minsters of China and the 10 ASEAN member states endorsed a set of guidelines on implementing the 2002 Declaration of Conduct in the South China Sea (DOC), which a Chinese diplomat called "an important milestone document for cooperation between China and ASEAN countries". On its face, the document looks like a milestone in bland talk, but the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton congratulated the parties for “working so closely together" to bring it about. The guidelines envisage "the eventual realization of a Code of Conduct", but the meeting's chairman, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, admitted that "there is a lot of hard work ahead". Any hope that the guidelines would lead to the resolution of the territorial disputes in the South China Sea is also misplaced, as a Chinese diplomat pointed out that "[t]he disputing parties are not China and the ASEAN, so a document reached by the two sides cannot solve the disputes." In the wake of adoption of the guidelines, Chinese FM Yang Jiechi told Hilary Clinton that "it is important to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China" and that China is committed to maintaining freedom of navigation and security in the area. Yang alsoreiterated China's approach on resolving the territorial disputes, insisting that bilateral negotiations were the only way forward.

The Philippines was the lone country that expressed disappointment over the document, complaining that it did not address what she saw as the core issue of China's so-called "nine-dotted line". China did not appear to mind very much taking on the Philippines one-on-one, as the Chinese Government expressed "strong protest" over several Filipino lawmakers' landing on the Zhongye Island in the South China Sea.