Marty made the statement on Tuesday after attending the 44th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting.
"During today`s meeting with ASEAN foreign affairs ministers, we made a draft of guidelines for the DoC and will propose the draft at the upcoming meeting with China," said the minister.
However Marty did not go into the details of the draft made by the ASEAN foreign ministers. He argued the draft still needed to be finalized.
Marty said apart from the making of guidelines for the DoC and the implementation of the DoC itself, the most important thing that needed to be realized was how ASEAN could make a contribution to the resolution of South China Sea conflicts.
"Today`s discussion with ASEAN foreign affairs ministers reaffirms the need for ASEAN to be part of a solution in this conflict. The problem needs to be solved immediately or else it will divide countries in the Asia Pacific region," he said.
ASEAN Foreign Affairs Ministers are scheduled to meet with their Chinese counterpart next Thursday (July 21).
Earlier, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono stressed the need for ASEAN member states and China to soon finalize the guidelines for the Declaration of Conduct (DoC) of the Parties in the South China Sea.
"ASEAN`s first ever Declaration on the South China Sea was issued long ago - in 1992. It took another 10 years before ASEAN and China agreed on the Declaration of Conduct. And yet, 9 years later, we still have not finalized the guidelines of the Declaration of the Conduct of the Parties in the South China Sea. Things do not necessarily have to be this slow," he said.
He said ASEAN and China must work together and solve the South China Sea conflict. "We need to send a strong signal to the world that the future of the South China Sea is a predictable, manageable and optimistic one. And we need to finalize the long overdue guidelines, because we need to get moving to the next phase, which is identifying elements of the Code of Conduct," he said.
(Uu.A051/HAJM/H-YH)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
