Jakarta. ASEAN is planning to set up a maritime center to keep the South China Sea safe and orderly, all the while the group finalizes the Beijing-backed golden rule in the strategic waterway.

The recent 48th ASEAN Summit had produced a leaders’ declaration on maritime cooperation. According to the 13-point text, the bloc aims to establish a maritime center based in the Philippines aimed at backing ASEAN’s work on maritime issues, “while avoiding duplication of efforts”. 

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. told reporters on Friday that the group still needed to iron out the technical details and structure, including from the funding standpoint, describing the center as a “new concept”. However, ASEAN members already have a “fairly good idea” of the center’s main job, and that is to make sure that ships can freely sail in the South China Sea.

“The vision mission are something that we have already had a fairly good idea about, but we have to get it written down in black and white,” Marcos said at a press briefing.

“But how the maritime center is going to be structured, so that we are able to do the things we hope for it to do, which is maintain the safety, freedom of navigation, and order in the South China Sea.”

The center’s task also extends to warding off illegal fishing and smuggling. The Philippine politician went on to explain that members already have their individual efforts in bolstering security in the maritime route. 

“The idea of maritime center is to make a cohesive organization that will put together all efforts of different ASEAN countries and outside the [grouping] who have an interest,” Marcos said.

He warned that any disruptions to the South China Sea would have alarming effects, similar to what had happened after Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

The South China Sea has become a fairly sensitive issue. China, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam have all laid overlapping claims to the body of water that handles 45% of global crude oil shipments. The same goes for Taiwan. Indonesia has repeatedly maintained that it is not a claimant state. The South China Sea is one of the world’s busiest trade routes, while being home to abundant marine and mineral resources.

ASEAN and China have long been finalizing the code of conduct in the waterway. The document is expected to lay out how countries should behave to avoid conflict. Marcos restated that the Philippines, as ASEAN chair, aimed to clinch the code of conduct by the end of the year. But he admitted that whether he was optimistic or pessimistic about that goal would be a “very difficult question”, citing the members’ different approaches to Beijing.