UN General Assembly
1992

concern among the countries involved and other States with interests in the area. Last July the Foreign Ministers of ASEAN issued in Manila the ASEAN Declaration on the South China Sea, calling on all claimants to settle their disputes peacefully, pledging to embark on cooperative endeavours in the area and inviting all parties concerned to subscribe to the Declaration. Dialogues have been taking place in the region involving officials and academicians from the claimant States and other interested parties. It is our hope that these dialogues will help to avert misunderstanding and conflict and eventually lead to the day when this vast, vital and strategic portion of the sea can be transformed from an area of incipient tension into a region of enduring peace and cooperation. All these fall squarely under the purposes and principles of the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation in South-East Asia, which the signatories, including the Philippines, are requesting the General Assembly to endorse at this session. Thus, even as the world welcomes the cold war's end and the march of