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                 ASEAN Summit Again Focuses on South China Sea

   by Steve Herman

   There are indications the ASEAN leaders' summit Wednesday will make
   progress on a long-running and contentious territorial dispute:
   establishing a code of conduct for the South China Sea.

   At its regional security forum three months ago, the 10 members of the
   Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) called for "the early
   conclusion of a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea."

   While ASEAN leaders, meeting this week in Myanmar's capital, might not
   make a full breakthrough, there is now a commitment "from all the
   stakeholders to speed up the process," according to the spokesman for
   the host's president.

   "Our expectation is after this summit, all the stakeholders can agree
   on the process of how to implement a code of conduct as soon as
   possible," Information Minister Ye Htut told VOA on Monday.

   Maritime standoffs

   ''ASEAN states are increasingly concerned about maritime standoffs
   involving Chinese vessels, part of what U.S. officials have called
   Beijing's "escalatory patterns of behavior" in the disputed waters.

   Vietnam and the Philippines are the ASEAN countries raising the most
   concern. That is something ASEAN Secretary-General Le Luong Minh,
   himself a veteran Vietnamese diplomat, acknowledged Tuesday in a VOA
   interview.

   "We have seen a widening gap between the political commitments and the
   actual actions - I mean the real situation at sea. And that is the
   challenge we have to overcome," said Minh.

   An agreement on the code of conduct could prove more difficult when
   Malaysia - viewed as being in the pro-China camp - takes over the ASEAN
   rotating chair next year.

   ASEAN Economic Community

   On that and other complex issue confronting the organization, such as
   next year's launch of the ASEAN Economic Community, progress is going
   to be difficult without "a strong committed collective leadership,
   contends Surin Pitsuwan, who preceded Minh as ASEAN secretary-general.

   "The speed of ASEAN is as fast as the slowest member because everything
   has to be by consensus," said Surin, a former foreign minister of
   Thailand.

   The 25th ASEAN Summit takes place Wednesday with the 9th East Asia
   Summit the following day.

   India's prime minister Narendra Modi and Indonesia's president Joko
   Widodo will be participating in the summit for the first time.

   Among the global leaders set to attend are U.S. President Barack Obama
   and China's Prime Minister Li Keqiang.

   United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is also expected to
   participate.

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   hina-seas/2515780.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/asean-summit-again-focuses-on-south-china-seas/2515780.html