The first day of the 45th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting was wrapped up here on Monday. In the afternoon's Retreat session, foreign ministers exchanged views on regional and international issues, a Cambodian spokesman for the 45th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM) and related meetings said.
The retreat was chaired by Cambodian deputy Prime Minister and foreign minister Hor Namhong.
Speaking in a press briefing after the retreat session, Kao Kim Hourn, secretary of state at Cambodia's foreign ministry, said that the talks focused on the issues in Syria, Korean peninsula, Myanmar's democratization process and the South China Sea.
"For Syria, foreign ministers wanted to see the end of conflict in that country," he said. "And for the Korean peninsula, they expressed their desire to see the resumption of the six-party talks and wanted to see the Korean peninsula free from nuclear weapons."
On the issue of South China Sea, Kao Kim Hourn said that the ASEAN foreign ministers agreed to have ASEAN senior officials meet with Chinese senior officials to discuss the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC) from now on.
"At the same time, they also encouraged both ASEAN and China to undertake the agreed five joint activities that had been raised in December last year," he said.
"As this year is the 10th anniversary of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), so it is very important that both sides -- ASEAN and China -- have to undertake those activities," he said.
The foreign ministers also said that they would fully implement the DOC, he said.
The ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.-The Philippine Star (July 10, 2012)
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