JAKARTA: Negotiations on a code of conduct (COC) for the South China Sea will be intensified this year, Indonesian and Chinese officials said on Wednesday, as the region frets over China’s assertiveness in the strategic waterway.
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi met with Chinese counterpart Qin Gang in Jakarta, ahead of a round of negotiations on the code starting in March.
“Indonesia and ASEAN would like to produce an effective, substantive and actionable (code of conduct),” Retno said, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a regional bloc that Indonesia chairs this year.
Qin added that China and ASEAN will jointly safeguard peace and stability in the strategic trade corridor, through which about $3.4 trillion of goods pass each year.
China would work with ASEAN countries to accelerate consultations on the code, he said.
Beijing claims much of the South China Sea and has built islands from which it is capable of deploying advanced weaponry. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Brunei also have some overlapping claims.
China and ASEAN countries agreed in 2002 to work toward creating a code of conduct and it was 15 years before moves were underway to create a framework for negotiations.
Some experts have accused China of intentionally holding up a process to create a binding set of rules, noting its use of grey-zone tactics and strategic ambiguity to press its territorial claims. China says it is committed to seeing the process through.
The code would advance a 2002 commitment by all parties to ensure freedom of navigation and overflight and “(refrain) from action of inhabiting on the presently uninhabited islands, reefs, shoals, cays, and other features.”
The latest talks would take place against a backdrop of increased diplomatic protests against China from the Philippines, which has increased overtures to Western powers like the United States and Australia to counter what it calls China’s “aggressiveness.”
Qin on Wednesday said Southeast Asian nations “should not be forced to take sides.”
“New cold war and competitiveness of great powers shouldn’t appear in the Asia-Pacific region. We believe that Indonesia and ASEAN will make their judgment and choice independently and autonomously in the fundamental interest of the stability, development and prosperity of the region,” he said.
They also discussed the crisis in military-ruled Myanmar, where ASEAN has struggled to get the generals to implement an agreed ‘five-point consensus’ for peace after the 2021 coup.
“As ASEAN chair, Indonesia will embark on engagements with all stakeholders in Myanmar, with the one goal of opening up a possibility of an inclusive national dialogue,” Retno said, adding Indonesia appreciates China’s support for the process.
China, ASEAN to intensify negotiations on South China Sea code
https://arab.news/rs485
China, ASEAN to intensify negotiations on South China Sea code
- China and ASEAN to jointly safeguard peace and stability in the strategic trade corridor, through which about $3.4 trillion of goods pass each year
- Beijing claims much of the South China Sea and has built islands from which it is capable of deploying advanced weaponry
26 Doctors without Borders workers remain unaccounted for in South Sudan a month after attacks
- A hospital in the town of Lankien was bombed by government forces, MSF said
- “We have lost contact with them amid ongoing insecurity”
NAIROBI: More than two dozen Doctors Without Borders workers remain unaccounted for a month after attacks in South Sudan, the medical charity said.
Two facilities belonging to the group, known by French acronym MSF, were attacked on Feb. 3 in Jonglei State, northeast of the capital, Juba, where violence has displaced an estimated 280,000 people since December.
A hospital in the town of Lankien was bombed by government forces, MSF said, while another medical facility in the town of Pieri was raided by “unknown assailants.” Both were located in opposition-held areas.
Staff working at the two facilities fled alongside much of the local population into deeply rural areas where armed clashes and aerial bombardments were ongoing.
MSF said in a statement on Monday that “26 of 291 of our colleagues working in Lankien and Pieri remain unaccounted for.
“We have lost contact with them amid ongoing insecurity,” it said.
The lack of communication with its staff could be linked to the limited network connectivity in much of the state. Staff members who had been contacted described “destruction, violence and extreme hardships.”
Fighting escalated sharply in December, when opposition forces captured a string of government outposts in north central Jonglei. In January, the government responded with a counteroffensive that recaptured most of the area it had lost.
Displaced people in Akobo, an opposition-held town near the Ethiopian border, described horrific violence by government fighters. Many described not being able to find food or water as they walked for days to reach safety.
The attacks on MSF facilities in Lankien and Pieri are part of an uptick in violence on humanitarian staff, supplies and infrastructure, aid groups say. MSF facilities have been attacked 10 times in the last 12 months.
“This violence has taken an unbearable toll not only on health care services, but on the very people who kept them running,” said Yashovardhan, MSF head of mission in South Sudan, who only uses one name.
“Medical workers must never be targets,” he said. “We are deeply concerned about what has happened to our colleagues and the communities we serve.”
