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South China Sea: can Malaysia as Asean chair deliver breakthrough in code of conduct talks?

Talks resumed in Manila earlier this month in search of a ‘substantive and effective’ framework to manage tensions in the disputed waterway.

From April 9 to 11, technical working group-level discussions were held in Manila, co-chaired by Malaysia and China. The goal: to advance a long-promised set of rules aimed at preventing clashes in one of the world’s most volatile maritime flashpoints. Philippine Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo said negotiations were still at an early stage but stressed the need for a “substantive and effective” framework, noting that how it would be implemented remained a separate but essential challenge.

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