BEIJING, Sept. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- The 6th China-ASEAN Senior Officials’ Meeting has been held in Suzhou, an industrial hub in east China’s Jiangsu province. The meeting arranged consultation on the code of conduct in the South China Sea under the framework of thorough implementation of the DOC.

Charting the way forward.

Wearing Tang suit and holding hands together, officials from China and ASEAN countries gathered in China for the 6th Senior Officials meetings.

Regarded as the first official meeting on consultation of code of conduct in south china sea, the meeting received positive feedbacks from the participant countries.

Liu Zhenmin, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister, said, "During the meeting we have reached an agreement on a principle guiding the COC consultations which is a principle of gradual approach based on consensus and the consultations on the coc within the framework of implementing doc."

China proposed to cooperation on setting up a hotline on emergency rescue at sea and to conduct table talks of joint search and rescue operation among China and Asean countries.

Over the past 11 years, China and ASEAN countries have carried out a wide range of cooperation in the field of maritime search and rescue under the DOC framework.

Zheng Huaiyu, Associate Consultant, China Maritime Search & Research Center, Ministry of Transport, said, "We’ve carried out many work such as humanitarian relief operations, joint exercises and exchange of visits. The most impressive one to me was in May 2006 when 330 Vietnamese fishermen were rescued by us due to a strong typhoon."

The next ten years is described as a diamond decade for china and asean, both sides will surely grasp the opportunity to advance the partnership to a higher level.

(Source: CNTV.cn)