A Chinese aircraft carrier accompanied by navy frigates and submarines in the South China Sea last year.
Collin Koh of S Rajaratnam School of International Studies said proper legislation will allow Asean countries to have their own coast guard law in direct response to China’s coast guard law. As of now, China claims 90% of the important waterway. Though this claim was invalidated by an international arbitration tribunal in 2016, China did not recognise the ruling.
“But we can sit down and actually say look this is our approach in terms of coast guard and naval cooperation and we can have dialogues with Malaysia, Philippines, Brunei and Vietnam to compare and contrast what are the strengths, and what are the lessons learned so far,” she said.