Australia welcomes ASEAN's call for peaceful SCS dispute settlement
An Australian government official said Tuesday Canberra welcomes the statement made by top diplomats from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) after they called for a peaceful resolution of the dispute in the South China Sea.
Michelle Chan, senior official of Australia's ASEAN, East Asia Summit and ASEAN Regional Forum, said international law, especially the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and dialogue "underpin our region's prosperity."
That was why "Australia welcomes ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ statement on promoting stability in the maritime sphere," she said in a statement on X.
On Saturday night, ASEAN released a foreign ministers' statement where the regional bloc's top diplomats recalled and reaffirmed their commitment to maintaining and promoting peace, security, and stability in the region, as well as to the peaceful resolution of disputes.
They called for the full respect for legal and diplomatic processes, "without resorting to the threat or use of force" under international law and agreements.
They also said they are closely following with concern the developments in the South China Sea and stressed the importance of maintaining and promoting peace, safety, security, stability, and freedom of navigation in and overflight above the maritime sphere of Southeast Asia, particularly the South China Sea.
"We welcome the efforts to manage the situations and ensure that peace and stability are maintained. We recognize the benefits of having the South China Sea as a sea of peace, stability, cooperation, and prosperity," they said.
"We underscored the importance of the full and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) in its entirety and committed to working towards the early conclusion of an effective and substantive Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC) that is in accordance with international law, including the 1982 UNCLOS," they added.