China: Forging of COC on disputed seas can't be rushed

MANILA, Philippines - Chinese Foreign Minister wang Yi has said that the forging of a Code of Conduct (COC) on the South China Sea should not rushed.

"China believes that there should be no rush. Certain countries are hoping that COC can be agreed on overnight. These countries are having unrealistic expectation and taking unserious attitudes," Xinhua news quoted Wang as saying to reporters in Vietnam on Monday.

Wang said that even with China agreeing to formal talks with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in September, the COC entails "a heavy load of coordination work."

"Such a code of conduct must be consensus-based. China and ASEAN members should draw experience from the formulation of DOC and seek the broadest consensus that would take care of the interests of all parties," Wang added, referring to the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties or DOC in the contested waters.

Related: Philippines rejects anew China's claims, joint exploration

The Philippines, one of the claimants in the South China Sea, has elevated its dispute with China through an arbitration case before an international tribunal. It had said that the dispute was elevated to the international tribunal after exhausing all diplomatic means with China.

"No individual countries should impose their will on others," the foreign minister added.

Wang said that the ASEAN should first "eliminate disturbances," claiming that the 10-member bloc was prevented from discussing the COC due to "certain parties."

"Instead of making disturbances, parties should make efforts that are conducive to the process so as to create necessary conditions and atmosphere," Wang said.

Emeritus Professor Carlyle Thayer of the University of New South Wales observed that it was China's allies that caused a failure to reach an accord on the South China Sea.

"It is clear that Chinese influence played a major role in influencing Cambodia to play an obstructionist role. Cambodia’s actions indicate that the idea of an ASEAN Community played second fiddle to its relations with China," Thayer wrote in the Asia Pacific Journal in August, 2012.

The scholar warned Vietnam and the Philippines against China's influence on ASEAN members.

"In the short run, the Philippines [and Vietnam] will be hyper sensitive to Cambodia’s role as ASEAN Chair in any discussions with China on the South China Sea. In the longer term some ASEAN members will be concerned about China’s ability to influence Laos and Myanmar who will assume the ASEAN Chair in 2014 and 2015, respectively," he said.