Almost 150 scholars, researchers and diplomats from 20 countries,
including Vietnam, gathered at the second international conference on
the East Sea held by the Maritime Institute of Malaysia in Kuala
Lumpur on September 4-5.
Themed “Geo-strategic
Developments and Prospects for Dispute Management”, the event focused on
six main contents, including the East Sea disputes and their impact
on the security environment in the Asia-Pacific, assessment of the
current situation in the East Sea, international legal context of East
Sea disputes, mechanism to settle disputes, long-term measures and the
orientations for settling the disputes.
Speaking at the opening
session, MIMA Chairman Ahmad Ramli stressed the strategic and economic
importance of the East Sea to coastal countries as well as the
international community.
He said territorial disputes and
overlapping sovereignty claims are the main cause of tension,
threatening regional peace, stability and solidarity among concerning
parties. He underscored the need for the stakeholders to work together
to ensure disputes in the sea are settled through diplomatic and
peaceful means.
Participants at the conference shared
information and raised proposals and specific measures and methods to
deal with the disputes in the East Sea in the context of changing
regional geo-politic situation.
They also discussed the
building of the Code of Conducts of Parties in the East Sea (COC),
holding that it is high time for ASEAN and China to work together to
complete the document at an early date.
Participants also said that ASEAN is on the right track in stepping up the building of COC.
In his speech, Vice Director of the Institute for Foreign Policy and
Strategic Studies Nguyen Hung Son proposed cooperation areas between
ASEAN and China as well as among concerned parties in order to
strengthen regional stability.
According to Son, ASEAN and
China should be willing to narrow down the gap in their understanding on
strategic environment as well as legal mechanisms to boost their
cooperation.-VNA