"President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. called on the ASEAN member states to fast-track the ASEAN-China Code of Conduct to advance meaningful progress amid China's continued aggression and harassment in Philippine waters," the Philippine Presidency said in a statement.
Some "core elements" of the Code remain unsettled due to disagreements between member states on issues ranging from the document's legal status to a "concept as basic as self-restraint," Marcos Jr. wrote.
"Parties must be earnestly open to seriously managing the differences and to reduce tensions," he added.
A high-ranking diplomatic source from China's delegation to the ASEAN summit in Laos told Sputnik that Beijing expects all countries of the region to cooperate for the sake of common peace and stability.
"Following the Philippine president's address at the ASEAN summit where he accused China of subjecting his country to aggression and harassment, Chinese Premier Li Qiang also raised the South China Sea in his address, outlining the benefits of peaceful economic cooperation between China and Southeast Asian countries over any confrontation, and urging the countries present at the summit to preserve peace and stability across the entire region, including the South China Sea," the diplomat said.
Recent weeks saw a rise in incidents involving Philippine and Chinese boats in disputed waters. In the most recent of them, on Tuesday, Manila accused Chinese Coast Guard of firing water cannons at two Philippine fishing boats. However, Beijing has said those were "legitimate control measures" against intrusion into what it considers its territorial waters.