May ginagawang hiwalay na negosasyon ang Pilipinas sa code of conduct sa mga kapitbahay na bansa gaya ng Malaysia at Vietnam.
Ito ay para tugunan ang sigalot ng Pilipinas at China sa South China Sea.
Ginawa ito ni Pangulong Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. dahil wala namang progreso ang broader agreement sa China.
Sa pahayag ni Pangulong Marcos sa Asiaa-Pacific Center for Security Studies forum sa Honolulu, Hawaii, sinabi nitong lumalala na ang tensyon sa South China Sea dahil sa hindi makatarungang pagbabanta ng China sa Philippine sovereign rights at jurisdiction sa exclusive economic zone.
“We have taken the initiative to approach those other countries around Asean with whom we have existing territorial conflicts, Vietnam being one of them, Malaysia being another and to make our own code of conduct. Hopefully, this will grow further and extend to other Asean countries,” pahayag ni Pangulong Marcos.
Ito rin ang dahilan ayon sa Pangulo kung kaya mahalaga na palakasin ang pakikipag-alyado ng Pilipinas sa Amerika at sa buong mundo.
““And this has been something that we have tried to develop and we have, I believe, have had some measure of success and we will continue to do this. But again, the bedrock of any of these partnerships is the partnership and treaty arrangement that we have, the Mutual Defense Treaty that we have with the United States,” pahayag ni Pangulong Marcos.