Foreign ministers from Asean and China will hold a special meeting to hasten progress on a code of conduct in the disputed South China Sea, Indonesia’s foreign minister said on Thursday.
The meeting was proposed by China and all countries within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) have agreed to participate, Marty Natalegawa told reporters at a meeting of Asean foreign ministers in Brunei.
The agreement is potentially significant as China has insisted on handling territorial disputes bilaterally with individual countries, while Asean wants to speak as a group, a disconnect blamed for hindering progress on a code.
Although no date has been set, Natalegawa said the planned meeting underscored the importance of making “progress on the code of conduct and to maintain a positive atmosphere in the South China Sea”.
“About where and when and how, I think that’s something that needs to be worked out,” he added, of the meeting’s details.
Videographic: A guide to the South China Sea islands dispute
Simmering tensions over competing claims to the sea, which is rich in oil and gas deposits, have reached boiling point in the past two years, with the Philippines and Vietnam accusing China of increasingly aggressive actions.