China attaches importance to the relationship with Southeast Asian countries and wants to put the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at the top position in its foreign policy, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.

Wang made the remarks to the media in Beijing on May 5 after his tour of four regional countries of Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei.

China will firmly support the strong growth of ASEAN, the establishment of the ASEAN Community by 2015 and the bloc’s central role in the regional structure, he said.

The Chinese FM affirmed Beijing hopes to consolidate and deepen the strategic partnership with ASE AN, as well as boost key projects to strengthen mutual trust and cooperation at sea, and expand the comprehensive strategic economic partnership.

According to Wang, the most important outcome of his trip was the coordination of development strategies between China and the four countries, and the definition of the direction and roadmap for bilateral mutually-beneficial cooperation for the next period. He said they achieved the consensus of pursuing friendly consultations and cooperation to settle disputes and existing problems between concerned countries.

Wang also said China and ASEAN agreed to implement effectively the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and on the basis of consensus and a step-by-step manner, the sides will discuss and firmly advance the process to build a Code of Conduct (COC) in the East Sea .

He added that Beijing is willing to continue organising high-level meetings to discuss the DOC implementation and hold discussions on speeding up the negotiations on the COC within the framework of the joint working group on the DOC enforcement./.