Jakarta. ASEAN must not further delay the rulebook for the South China Sea, Indonesia’s foreign minister Sugiono told the bloc’s gathering in Manila, as Beijing and the Philippines trade accusations over a clash at the waterway.

The Southeast Asian grouping has long been drafting a “code of conduct” over the contested waterway, which handles multi-trillion-dollar worth of goods trade each year. China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Vietnam have laid overlapping claims to this resource-rich body of water. The long-awaited document will serve as the golden rules that specify how countries should behave in the South China Sea.

Speaking before his ASEAN counterparts, Sugiono said that Jakarta welcomed the “positive momentum” in the code’s negotiations. ASEAN chair the Philippines seeks to finish it by end-2026, and Jakarta has had enough of postponements.

“Our people have waited 24 years for rules at sea. They should not wait for another year. Indonesia is committed to concluding an effective and substantive code of conduct this year,” Sugiono said on Tuesday, as seen in a government-provided transcript. 

He went on to say that the upcoming code would be “firmly anchored” in the international maritime law of the 1982 UNCLOS. Wrapping up the talks within this year is also not simply aimed at meeting a deadline.

“[It’s] because a region governed by rules will always be stronger than one governed by power,” Sugiono said.

But China's dispute with the host loom large at the Manila meeting.

The Philippine military has just accused a Chinese coast guard of allegedly injuring a Filipino sailor during a clash at the waterway’s disputed shoal on Monday. According to the UNCLOS, this shoal lies within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines. Beijing claimed that it was the Filipinos who had initiated the attack. 

As tensions soar, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is expected to join the Manila talks soon. The same goes for US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, making the situation more awkward as Washington was quick to condemn China’s “aggressive actions” at the shoal.

Despite being a non-claimant, Singapore hopes to see peace and stability in the South China Sea. Singapore’s minister of state for foreign affairs Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim also admitted that the code's conclusion would hinge on “a lot of factors”.

“The fact that we have reached this stage is really a testament to the leadership of the chair, the Philippines,” Zhulkarnain recently told a briefing with Indonesian journalists.

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