Vietnam wishes official negotiations on COC to start early Vietnamese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Luong Thanh Nghi. Photo: KTDT PANO – Vietnam wants ASEAN to soon start official negotiation on COC (the code of conduct in the East Sea), Vietnamese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Luong Thanh Nghi stated at a regular news conference held by the Foreign Ministry on October 25th in Hanoi. Answering questions from reporters about Vietnam’s comments on Indonesia’s recent releasing of a draft COC at the news conference, the Spokesman said that ASEAN has been boosting official consultations between the bloc and China to work out a COC. According to him, at this point, ASEAN has completed fundamental documents on the components of a future COC, he added. What Indonesia recently proposed was more specific and detailed on the basis of the components agreed by the ASEAN foreign Ministers in July 2012, and ASEAN members would further discuss these contents, he affirmed. “Vietnam hopes that ASEAN and China will soon start official negotiations on COC, contributing to ensuring peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region,” he concluded. At the meeting, the Vietnamese Spokesman also presented briefs on major external activities in the forthcoming time, including an official visit of Russian Prime Minister D. Medvedev in the beginning of November. He underlined that the visit holds major significance in the context of the two countries having just raised their relationship to comprehensive strategic partnership. He unveiled that the two sides would likely discuss directions and measures to further strengthen bilateral relations in the future, as well as exchanging information about international and regional situations of mutual concern. Translated by Thu Nguyen