Foreign ministers from 10 member-states of ASEAN grappled with the issue during their two-day retreat in Kota Kinabalu, capital of Malaysia's Sabah State in Borneo.
"The ministers instructed our senior officials to intensify efforts towards achieving the full and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea and work vigorously towards the early conclusion of the Code of Conduct on the South China Sea," Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said at a press conference at the end of the meeting.
Anifah also said he has instructed Thailand as the country coordinator overseeing the Code of Conduct to "increase the frequency" of the meetings between ASEAN and China.
Singapore, which will take over from Thailand as the country coordinator in August, said it will try hard to deliver a COC.
"A number of countries raised the issue very strongly because they felt that the progress on the COC was a little muted compared with the way land reclamation was being carried out," Singapore Foreign Minister K. Shanmugan said.
"It's our common goal to try and do as much as we can to try to get to a proper document on COC," Shanmugan added.
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