Beijing (VNA) – Senior officials of ASEAN and China held the 15th meeting on theimplementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea(DOC) in Hunan province, China, on June 27.

Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou andSecretary of the Singaporean Foreign Ministry Chee Wee Kiong co-chaired themeeting (SOM-DOC 15).

Earlier, the 24th meeting of the ASEAN-ChinaJoint Working Group on the Implementation of the DOC (JWG-DOC 24) took place onJune 25 and 26.

These meetings aimed to review the DOC implementationand the negotiation on a Code of Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (COC) andspecify the next activities on these issues.

The JWG-DOC 24 discussed details of the COC andclarified the principles and the next activities of the JWG-DOC. They agreedthat the JWG-DOC will regularly report the progress and outcomes to the SOM-DOCand the ASEAN-China Post Ministerial Conference (PMC).

Meanwhile, the SOM-DOC 15 looked into therealisation of the DOC and affirmed the importance of full compliance with thisdocument to maintain dialogue and cooperation for peace and stability in theEast Sea.

They underscored the need to promote trustbuilding measures in the DOC implementation, both in the field and incooperation activities, thus creating a favourable environment for the COCnegotiation.

At the meeting, officials also detailed the DOCimplementation plan for 2016-2018.

Regarding the content of the COC, the SOM-DOC 15applauded the negotiations at the JWG-DOC 24 and the previous meeting in NhaTrang city of Vietnam in March 2018. Participants also discussed the COC andmethods for negotiating this document and talked about the next steps andcontent to be reported to the ASEAN-China PMC in Singapore next August.

Addressing the SOM-DOC 15, head of theVietnamese delegation - Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung, reiteratedthe importance of the DOC’s implementation to maintaining peace, stability andsecurity in the region. He welcomed some outcomes of the DOC’s implementation.

However, he voiced concern about islandreclamation and the military equipment installation and testing on disputedstructures in the East Sea, noting these activities run counter to the DOC’sprinciples and adversely affect COC negotiations.

Dung called on relevant parties to exerciseself-restraint, refrain from actions that can complicate the situation, thus creatinga favourable environment for the COC negotiations.

In terms of building the COC, the DeputyMinister renewed Vietnam’s viewpoints on this document. He said the COC needsto be enforceable and legally binding while serving as a tool regulatingrelevant parties’ behaviours in the East Sea. It must also be in accordancewith international law, particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on theLaw of the Sea.

ASEAN and China agreed to hold the next JWG-DOCmeeting in Siem Reap, Cambodia, in early September this year.-VNA