In a statement issued at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' semiannual summit, the ministers also called for restraint and greater urgency in multilateral talks on a code of conduct in the resource-rich waters.
The statement followed two incidents this past week: China and Vietnam faced off over a Chinese state-run energy company's attempt to place an oil rig in waters each country claims as its own. Meanwhile, Philippine maritime police arrested Chinese fishermen for alleged poaching, also in waters with competing claims, which prompted a rebuke from Beijing.
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