MANILA (Reuters) -The Philippines is hoping a code of conduct for the South China Sea can be completed when it is chair of the ASEAN bloc next year, with a consensus emerging between Southeast Asia and China, its foreign secretary said on Monday.

Theresa Lazaro said the code being negotiated between China and the 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations should be legally binding.

ASEAN and China pledged in 2002 to create a code of conduct, but it took 15 years to start discussions, and progress until now has been slow.

“I think there is already a sense among ASEAN and China that a code of conduct will be concluded,” Lazaro told a press conference.

“It is indeed our intention and I think it is also the aspiration of all of ASEAN and even China to finish and to come up with the c

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