Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo Friday said that he wanted claimants to the territories in the South China Sea to adopt a formal Code of Conduct "as soon as possible."

Romulo said at a press conference that a Code of Conduct on the South China Sea, a brainchild of the Philippines, is something that Manila has been pushing for.

"We are leading to that. That is what we have been aiming at. We want it as soon as possible," Romulo said.

The foreign secretary made the announcement after the conclusion on Friday of the first meeting of the ASEAN-China Joint Working Group on the Implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea.

Participated experts have discussed the guidelines and concrete steps to implement the non-binding code, which was signed by China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2002 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Romulo said that since the adoption of the Declaration, it has "gradually evolved as the region's guidepost on actions and policies concerning the South China Sea."

He hoped that continuous dialogues on the Declaration would eventually lead to the drafting of a formal Code.

The ASEAN-China Joint Working Group, which is tasked to meet twice a year and present recommendations to senior officials, initially considered several project proposals including joint exchanges among claimants in marine ecosystem and biodiversity of the South China Sea, search and rescue, disaster prevention, monitoring and warning system and regional oceanography and climatology.

Source: Xinhua