The 51st ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (AMM) and Related Meetings in Singapore from 30 July to 4 August 2018 was generally hailed as a success. Most notably there were no reported delays in the issuance of its Joint Communique this time round.

This was unlike in previous instances when the Joint Communique was delayed as a result of seemingly intractable issues, especially the South China Sea disputes. At the ASEAN-China Post Ministerial Conference (PMC), progress was also made with regard to the South China Sea issue – ASEAN and China agreed on a single draft text to negotiate the Code of Conduct (COC). This text will form the basis for future COC negotiations.

… Henrick Z. Tsjeng and Shawn Ho are Associate Research Fellows with the Regional Security Architecture Programme at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore.