Leaders Welcome Positive Developments in ASEAN-China Relations, Announce Start of COC Negotiations
13 November 2017, Manila. President Rodrigo R. Duterte chaired the 20th ASEAN-China Summit held at the PICC in Manila. The Summit was attended by the Heads of State/Government of the ASEAN Member States (AMS) and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.
The Leaders welcomed the positive developments in ASEAN-China Dialogue Relations in three areas of cooperation, namely, political-security, economic, and socio-cultural or people-to-people exchanges.
Following the adoption by the Ministers of AMS and China of the Framework of the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC) in August, the Leaders formally announced the start of the negotiations on the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea.
The Leaders also adopted a Declaration for a Decade of Coastal and Marine Environmental Protection in the South China Sea and Joint Statement on Strengthening Anti-Corruption Cooperation. They also issued Statements on Tourism Cooperation and on Deepening the Cooperation of Infrastructure Connectivity.
ASEAN-China Dialogue Relations was established in 1991 and elevated to a strategic partnership in 2003. END