MANILA: ASEAN foreign ministers hailed "significant progress" in negotiations on the long-awaited Code of Conduct (COC) for the South China Sea, saying they hoped to conclude talks by the end of this year. In a joint communiqué issued on Thursday (Jul 23), ASEAN ministers reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace, stability and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. However, analysts cautioned that recent flare ups reveal a gap between diplomatic progress and continued tensions at sea. “These Code of Conduct negotiations have gone on for decades now and have been quite thorny,” said Mr Andreyka Natalegawa, an associate fellow at Washington-based research institute Center for Strategic and International Studies' (CSIS) Southeast Asia Program. “Look at the political realities of what we're seeing in the waters of the South China Sea – it feels as though a conclusion to the Code of Conduct negotiations seems quite challenging,” he told CNA's Asia First.