CHINA is in favor of instituting a binding Code of Conduct in the South China Sea, President Rodrigo Duterte said at the conclusion of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit hosted by Manila.
Duterte said that this gesture on the part of China was one of the outcomes of the 50th Asean Summit chaired by the Philippines on top of the signing of an agreement for the protection of promotion of the rights of migrant workers in Southeast Asia.
“At the ministerial level of the Asean, they are working on it (Code of Conduct). China has graciously agreed to a Code of Conduct, and it will bind itself to the agreement,” Duterte said.
Five out of seven claimant countries are Asean members: the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. Non-Asean claimants in South China Sea include China and Taiwan.
“They (China) want to proceed with this promise, and they want it fast- tracked,” Duterte added.
The claims of Asean members and Taiwan are based on their respective exclusive economic zones (EEZ) set at 200 nautical miles away from shore under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas, while China is claiming the entire South China Sea based on its nine-dash line theory.