New Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin, Jr said on Monday that the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and China would unlikely be able to arrive at a legally binding code of conduct for the South China Sea. Asean and China this year started formal negotiations for a code of conduct to ease tensions brought by conflicting claims over a strategic waterway where about $3 trillion worth of sea-borne good passes every year. "Perhaps we will not be able to arrive at a legally binding code of conduct," Locsin told a news conference in southern Davao City after holding talks with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi.

PH doubts Asean, China can craft legally binding sea code. (2018, Ocotber 30). Malaya Business Insight, pp. B1, B6.