Foreign Ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have endorsed the establishment of the ASEAN-China Joint Working Group to study and recommend measures to translate the provisions of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DoC) into concrete cooperative activities.

This was contained in a joint communiqu issued Tuesday at the end of one-day ASEAN ministerial meeting in Vientiane, Laos.

"We looked forward to the 1st meeting of the working group on the implementation of DoC to be held in Manila in August 2005, as a concrete step toward the full implementation of the DoC," the ministers said.

The ministers welcomed China's view underscoring that a regional code of conduct in the South China Sea is essential, as conveyed during the 11th ASEAN China Senior Officials Consultations in Shanghai, China, in April 2005.

"We encouraged all parties concerned to continue to exercise of self-restraint and to continue to undertake confidence-building measures that would contribute to the maintenance of peace and stability in the region.

"We also reaffirmed our commitment to resolve the dispute in the South China Sea through peaceful means in accordance with international conventions including the United Nations Convention on the law of the Sea," the communiqu said.

ASEAN's annual ministerial meeting was attended by foreign ministers from ten-member bloc which groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam.

Source: Xinhua