DFA: Code to avoid clashes over West PH Sea not approved yet

Philippines' Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario, center, prepares his documents as he attends Asean-Australia Ministerial Meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Wednesday, July 11, 2012. The Philippines is leading a push for Asean to unite to propose to China a code based on a UN law on maritime boundaries that would delineate the areas belonging to each country. AP PHOTO/HENG SINITH

Southeast Asian nations have not yet approved a code of conduct that would prevent armed clashes in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), the Philippines’ top diplomat said Wednesday.

In a text message to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said senior officials of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) reached agreement on Monday on the key elements to be included in a code of conduct in the West Philippine Sea.

The “elements need to be approved at the ministerial level, then mandated back to the senior officials’ meeting for consultations with China,” Del Rosario said.

Del Rosario was correcting false understanding (not in the Inquirer) of reports coming out of the Asean foreign ministers’ meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on a code of conduct that the regional bloc was preparing as a response to China’s growing aggressiveness in the West Philippine Sea.

The code would spell out rules governing maritime rights and navigation in the West Philippine Sea.