Jakarta. The Chinese government has had “in-depth” maritime talks with Indonesia, according to its top diplomat, as Beijing and ASEAN seek to secure the “golden rules” for the coveted South China Sea within this year.

ASEAN has long been pushing for a “code of conduct” on the South China Sea to avoid conflict in the strategic waterway. Beijing and its Southeast Asian neighbors have laid overlapping claims to the waters that are a conduit for an estimated $5 trillion in global trade.

This code will lay down the rules on how countries should behave to calm tension. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that cooperation on the world’s busiest shipping lane had been on a momentum, citing talks with ASEAN members as an example.

“Over the past year, cooperation in the South China Sea has kept a sound momentum. China had in-depth discussions with Indonesia on joint maritime development,” Wang told a press conference in Beijing over the weekend.

Beijing has had bilateral maritime dialogue with Kuala Lumpur, while partnering with Vietnam on sustainable fisheries, according to Wang. Earlier this year, the Chinese Coast Guard saved 17 Filipino crew members from a cargo ship that had capsized near the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. 

“All these are ample proof that peace, cooperation, and friendship should be the new narrative of the South China Sea. … Yet lasting peace and stability require solid institutional support,” Wang said.

The minister admitted that the consultation on the code of conduct had reached “crunch time”.

“All relevant parties look forward to wrapping it up this year. Together with the parties, China has the confidence and the resolve to remove interference, bridge differences, expand common ground, and reach an agreement as soon as possible.”

Beijing called on Manila — this year’s ASEAN chair — to resist inserting “self-interests” in the code negotiations. The Philippines has competing claims in the disputed body of water. The same goes for China, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, and Taiwan. 

ASEAN and China already have a decades-old, non-binding document to reduce conflict risks in the resource-rich region. The upcoming code of conduct is supposed to be more binding to effectively manage the differences. 

In November 2024, a joint statement released after President Prabowo Subianto’s talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping quickly made waves. It says both countries had reached “an important common understanding on joint development in areas of overlapping claims”. This sparked assumptions that Jakarta would recognize the “nine-dash line”, which China had been using to illustrate its claim that encircles around 90% of the contested waterway.

Indonesia has repeatedly denied being a claimant state, although the nine-dash line cuts into the waters in the north of the Natuna Islands. When the government found itself in hot water over the maritime deal, Jakarta said that its position remained the same: the Chinese claims “lack international legal basis”.

“The cooperation shall, under no circumstances, affect Indonesia's sovereignty, sovereign rights, or jurisdiction in the North Natuna Sea,” the Indonesian Foreign Ministry said at the time.

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