Their position was outlined in a statement by Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan at the end of an Asean Foreign Ministers' Retreat which he chaired on Tuesday (Feb 6).
The terrorist threat facing Southeast Asia is growing as foreign fighters return to the region, Southeast Asian defence ministers said in a joint statement on Tuesday in which they pledged to improve cooperation to tackle militancy.
Balakrishnan said some ASEAN ministers voiced concerns over China's land reclamation activities in the South China Sea but they were encouraged by an agreement a year ago by both sides to start formal negotiations for a code of conduct governing behaviour in the disputed area.
"We reaffirmed the need to enhance mutual trust and confidence, exercise self-restraint. and avoid actions that may further complicate the situation", he added.
China, Taiwan and four ASEAN member states - Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam - have overlapping claims in the waterway, which straddles busy worldwide sea lanes and potentially has vast undersea deposits of oil and gas.
They agreed with the proposals on the implementation of ASEAN-China substantive negotiations on the COC and directed the senior officials concerned to hold the first round of negotiations in Vietnam next March.
ASEAN consists of Indonesia, which has the world's biggest Muslim population, and mostly Muslim Malaysia alongside Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
FMs at the AMM Retreat reviewed the results after the 31st ASEAN Summit in Manila, the Philippines, last November, while identifying ASEAN cooperation priorities in 2018, its directions in external relations and enhancing ASEAN's central role in regional processes, as well as exchanging on regional and worldwide issues of common concern.
The Asean foreign ministers also stressed the importance of maintaining safety and freedom of navigation in, as well as overflight above, the South China Sea and "warmly welcomed " improving cooperation between Asean and China.
'It's going to be a very complicated negotiation, ' he told a news conference. "And that is why we should be able to start negotiations soon", he said.
"Building up trust and getting the sequence right and doing it step by step is more important than doing it in a hasty way because there is an artificial deadline", he added.
Source: Express News Line
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<p>Time: November 2025<br /> By: WTO and International Trade Group, Legal Department – VCCI</p>
