From 2-4 November 2025, in Da Nang, Vietnam, CCRS Delegation, comprising Mr. Him Raksmey, Executive Director, and Mr. Him Rotha, Deputy Director, were invited to attend the 17th South China Sea International Conference: Unity in Uncertainties, organized by the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam (DAV). More than 300 participants including senior officials, members of the diplomatic corps, business executives, and regional scholars and academics took part in this conference.
The conference was a substantive policy-oriented forum to discuss concrete ways to foster regional and international cooperation to address multitudinous challenges of mutual concerns and interests, and forge a more united ASEAN to enhance the rules-based order underpinned by universal norms and principles of the international law in the South China Sea. Concretely, this year’s edition deliberated on key topics including evolving realities at sea and great-power dynamics to emerging maritime technologies, ASEAN’s role, and international legal frameworks.
During the meeting, Him Raksmey was invited to speak in a conference session entitled “ASEAN at Helm”. He discussed the genesis and key instruments of ASEAN’s peaceful dispute settlement mechanisms particularly the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) and the ASEAN Charter, and ways that ASEAN can forge unity to promote a more effective leadership to enhance its own mechanisms to manage and address disputes peacefully in the region. He said having unity among its member states is vital for ASEAN to project an effective leadership in enhancing the regional bloc’s peaceful dispute settlement mechanisms on key regional challenges. Soliciting regional unity requires that all ASEAN members incorporates regional interests as the key part of their national interests, and are more willing to strengthen and innovate ASEAN as a regional institution that is politically equipped and institutionally ready to exhibit effective leadership in managing and addressing peacefully its own regional affairs.
Throughout the course of the conference, the CCRS Delegation actively participated and learned from the interesting policy-oriented discussions, particularly recent developments, the status and prospects of the ASEAN-China negotiations on the Code of Conduct (COC), and concrete ways to promote peaceful dispute settlements in the South China Sea, ranging from political, economic, sociocultural, legal and technological aspects. They were also able to engage with numerous regional think tanks and academic institutions to explore opportunities for research collaborations and academic exchanges.
