MANILA -- The leaders of China and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have formally endorsed the framework adopted by their foreign ministers in August for a code of conduct (COC) to handle overlapping territorial claims in the South China Sea.
The agreement at the end of a summit in the Philippine capital early this week comes 17 years after all parties first agreed in principle to adopt a code of conduct, but the process is far from concluded. A working group will resume negotiations in March in Vietnam before anything further goes up to ministerial level. It is also not clear if the final COC will be legally binding.
