Philippines misses goal of South China Sea code during ASEAN chairship

(L-R) Myanmar's Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs U Hau Khan Sum, Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Thailand's Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, East Timor's Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, Vietnam's Prime Minister Le Minh Hung, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Singapore's Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto, Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Manet and Laos’ Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone pose for a group photo during the opening ceremony of the 48th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Cebu, central Philippines on May 8, 2026.

AFP / Aaron Favila / pool

MANILA, Philippines (Updated 6:11 p.m.) — The Philippines will close its term as ASEAN chair without its most coveted target: a binding code of conduct for the South China Sea, as negotiations for the text have only reached about 80% agreement of negotiators with China at the close of Manila's year as head of the bloc.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Theresa Lazaro on Sunday, November 15, said the unfinished document will now be in the ambit of Singapore as it assumes the chairship next year.

"We leave this almost 80% finished document to Singapore for the next year," Lazaro told reporters at the end of the first day of the 49th ASEAN Summit.

This falls short of the aspiration Marcos had sought from the start of the country's chairship: to finally bring to conclusion the long-delayed negotiations for a binding code that will guide countries' conduct in international waters.

After the 48th summit in Cebu in May, Marcos then called a finished code by year's end one of our aspirations as chair of ASEAN for 2026."

Originally, ASEAN ministers and China had agreed in 2023 to speed up the talks and conclude them within three years. The code is meant to set rules of behavior in the South China Sea, where China Coast Guard ships have repeatedly clashed with Philippine vessels in waters Manila calls the West Philippine Sea.

Beijing claims nearly the entire waterway, despite a 2016 arbitral ruling in The Hague that found its sweeping claims had no legal basis. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei also have overlapping claims.