Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo said the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea will unlikely be completed this year, noting there was still a lot of work to be done.

In an interview with GMA Integrated News, Manalo said there were still many things to consider, making it impossible to complete the COC negotiations within the year.

"You need all the countries to agree so that alone takes time," he said.

"We have bigger issues, too. Political issues, whether the code will be legally binding or not, we're not yet there," he added.

In an interview with CNN Philippines, Indonesia's envoy to the country Agus Widjojo said almost the same thing as Manalo. He noted that, while the negotiations were progressing, much work was still needed to be done.

"We are entering the third part of the 1/3 of the COC,"  he said.

"But in diplomacy, it could be anything. The most important is the parties are willing to meet each other and talk to each other," he added.

The Indonesian envoy explained that the biggest challenge among the parties involved having differences.

"If you have differences, how could you meet? So, it's important to have a basis for a win-win approach, win-win interest, and a balance of interests between all parties concerned," he said,

Despite this, Widjojo said Indonesia remains committed to intensifying the COC negotiations.

Negotiations on the COC resumed in Jakarta in early March. It was the 38th meeting of the Joint Working Group and will be held at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretariat.

The COC is expected to be one of the topics of discussion in the upcoming ASEAN Summit in Indonesia in May. Indonesia is the current chairman of the 10-country regional bloc.