MOSCOW, December 7. /TASS/. The newly-established partnership of the United States, Britain and Australia in the field of security (AUKUS) may impede the drafting of a code of conduct in the South China Sea between the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Pacific Cooperation Department, Alexey Ovchinnikov said at the 12th Asian conference of the Valdai international discussion club.
"All of a sudden the radical variant of the AUKUS bloc becomes the quintessence of the Indo-Pacific project. At the moment discussions are in progress on how it will proceed and how many risks it involves. Many actions that are being taken within the framework of this project may trigger some retaliation, and this may harm the negotiations on a code of conduct in the South China Sea, which is a very important process for the region," he said.
"The way I see it, many actions, including those following the emergence of the AUKUS bloc, may trigger other steps that will simply undermine the process of negotiations and make it impossible," Ovchinnikov said. "I will not feel surprised, if in the near future some other countries not involved in drafting rules for a whole region and subregion will establish their own set of rules for the South China Sea on a different basis and with their own vision. The logic of events indicates that this is possible."
For the past few years China and a number of ASEAN member-states, including Brunei, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines have been locked in territorial disputes in the South China Sea. The participating parties have said more than once that although there are major disagreements, they are aware of the need for concluding a code of conduct to be followed in conflict situations. The work on such a code has continued for several years and, as Beijing has said, considerable progress has been achieved, although the code has not been finalized yet.
China is strongly against any intervention in this territorial dispute by third countries, such as Britain, the European Union member-states and Japan. Beijing has said more than once that Washington’s steps, such as voyages by US aircraft carrier-led task forces to the region, harm stability and are leading to the region’s militarization.