Almost 150 scholars, researchers and diplomats from 20 countries,including Vietnam, gathered at the second international conference onthe East Sea held by the Maritime Institute of Malaysia in KualaLumpur on September 4-5.

Themed “Geo-strategicDevelopments and Prospects for Dispute Management”, the event focused onsix main contents, including the East Sea disputes and their impacton the security environment in the Asia-Pacific, assessment of thecurrent situation in the East Sea, international legal context of EastSea disputes, mechanism to settle disputes, long-term measures and theorientations for settling the disputes.
Speaking at the openingsession, MIMA Chairman Ahmad Ramli stressed the strategic and economicimportance of the East Sea to coastal countries as well as theinternational community.

He said territorial disputes andoverlapping sovereignty claims are the main cause of tension,threatening regional peace, stability and solidarity among concerningparties. He underscored the need for the stakeholders to work togetherto ensure disputes in the sea are settled through diplomatic andpeaceful means.

Participants at the conference sharedinformation and raised proposals and specific measures and methods todeal with the disputes in the East Sea in the context of changingregional geo-politic situation.
They also discussed thebuilding 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 tocomplete 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 andStrategic Studies Nguyen Hung Son proposed cooperation areas betweenASEAN and China as well as among concerned parties in order tostrengthen regional stability.

According to Son, ASEAN andChina should be willing to narrow down the gap in their understanding onstrategic environment as well as legal mechanisms to boost theircooperation.-VNA