Recto Mercene / Reporter
Business Mirror (Philippines)
Asked whether Cambodia, this year’s Asean chairman, might discourage the discussion since that country is allied with China, Barsana said no.
President Aquino is expected to raise the issue of the Code of Conduct governing the South China Sea when he attends the 20th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, from April 2 to 4.
The summit coincides with the 45th anniversary of Asean.
The President may raise the issue of North Korea’s planned rocket launch during the Asean Leaders’ Retreat. The retreat is a meeting of all the leaders in a very informal environment and where they can have a freewheeling discussion on issues of common
interest and of pressing issues of the day. He will also join three of his counterparts in the 8th Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-Eaga) summit after the concluding session of the Asean summit.
The President will depart Monday.
“One of the agenda items in the retreat is the implementation of the declaration of the Code of Conduct and part of it is the formulation of the Code of Conduct, identifying the elements,” said foreign office Assistant Secretary Teresita Barsana following a press briefing in Malacañang.
She said the Philippines was part of the group that drafted the Code of Conduct “and that is where we can incorporate the elements that we want in our proposal for the Zone of Peace, Freedom, Friendship and Cooperation.”
Barsana said that part of the advocacies of the Philippines in Asean is to push the issue for the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea to the government), since the Spratlys group, where Kalayaan Islands belong, is already considered part of the Philippines’s territory.
Asked whether Cambodia, this year’s Asean chairman, might discourage the discussion since that country is allied with China, Barsana said no.
“They are not discouraging the discussion of the West Philippine issue. As a matter of fact, they are encouraging the creation, the formulation of the Code of Conduct in relation to the implementation of the declaration of the Conduct of the State Parties in the South China Sea, because they would like to see it formulated during their chairmanship.”
She said the declaration was signed 10 years ago, also in Phnom Penh, “so they’re really very interested in seeing that something very positive comes out of it.”
The retreat is a meeting of all the leaders in a very informal environment and where they can have a freewheeling discussion on issues of common
interests and of pressing issues of the day,” Barsana said.
Expected to be discussed during the BIMP-Eaga summit are its strategic thrusts in the next five years in enhanced
transport, power and communication connectivity, food-basket strategy in agri-business and fisheries development, tourism development and environment and natural resource development.
Before returning to Manila, the President will meet the members of the Filipino community in Cambodia. There are about 3,000 Filipinos in Cambodia.
About 2,000 of them live in the capital and work in medicine, business and nongovernmental organizations. Asean is composed of 10 countries, namely the Philippines, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
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