Djauhari who is also the chairman of the ASEAN Senior Officials` Meeting said the effort was the follow up of the agreement on the Declaration of Parties` Conduct over the South China Sea disputes.
Nusa Dua, Bali (ANTARA News) - Officials of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are making an inventory of possible cooperation projects in the South China Sea region in the connection with the process of peace realization in the region.

"What we are discussing on the South China Sea is how to implement the projects," the director general for ASEAN cooperation of the Indonesian ministry of foreign affairs Djauhari Oratmangun said when met at the venue of the 19th ASEAN Summit here on Monday evening.

Djauhari who is also the chairman of the ASEAN Senior Officials` Meeting said the effort was the follow up of the agreement on the Declaration of Parties` Conduct over the South China Sea disputes.

ASEAN would record what cooperation projects could possibly be carried out in the region. On the other hand, China would also do the same. After that ASEAN would meet with China to harmonize and formulate the code of conduct for parties in the South China Sea region.

Djauhari said he did not remember what projects that had been included. He only said China had proposed one coopetation project while ASEAN at least one project namely on a search and rescue mission.

A number of tense situations and disputes have often occurred in the South China Sea region involving China and four ASEAN members namely Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam.

The upcoming 19th ASEAN Summit is expected to become one of the milestones in a peace mission including in the South China Sea.

The summit until November 19 is important because it has been designed to produce a Bali Declaration on ASEAN Community in the Global Community of Nations.

According to a press statement from the foreign ministry, the declaration will be connected with other declarations namely the declaration of the East Asia Summit on principles of mutually beneficial relations and the declaration of the East Asia Summit on comprehensive partnership between ASEAN and the UN.

The ASEAN senior officials would also discuss plans for the formation of an ASEAN Institute of Peace and Reconciliation and the implementation of the declaration on conduct of parties in the South China Sea dispute.

A working group of the ASEAN senior officials` meeting would discuss for the first time the code of conduct in the South China Sea in the early series of the 19th ASEAN Summit meetings in Bali.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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