Phnom Penh÷His Excellency Kong Phok, Spokesman of the ASEAN Summit, emphasized that the issue of the South China Sea is not a hot agenda item in the ASEAN Summit at this meeting because the issue of the South China Sea is calm.
His Excellency Kong Phok emphasized this in the press conference on the outcome of the ASEAN Summit and related meetings held in Phnom Penh on November 11, 2022.
[The South China Sea issue is still a major issue in the region. His Excellency also wanted to emphasize that over the years, the South China Sea has been relatively calm, with no disputes, but little has led to no clashes].
The South China Sea has also become a long-running territorial dispute between China and four ASEAN powers, including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
To resolve the South China Sea issue in 2002, when Cambodia chaired ASEAN for the first time, ASEAN-China issued a Code of Conduct for Parties in the South China Sea [DOC] as all countries worked to promote A statement of the Code of Conduct on the South China Sea [COC] is acceptable to end the conflict.
HE Kong Phok also confirmed that in the past, stakeholders have tried to cooperate on what can be done.
Regarding the [COC], the Spokesman stated that Cambodia has also contributed significantly to the completion of all parties’ negotiations as the [COC] draft began in 2018.
