Thai Diplomat Urges Focus on Peace and Cooperation in South China Sea

BEIJING – March 11, 2026 – A veteran Thai diplomat has issued a powerful call for nations surrounding the South China Sea to pivot from simmering disputes to a new era of collaboration, framing the contested waters as a potential “sea of peace, cooperation, and where we can benefit together.”

In a recent interview, Sorajak Kasemsuvan, former Vice Foreign Minister of Thailand and a council member of the Asian Peace and Reconciliation Council, outlined a vision for regional stability anchored in mutual benefit, urgent environmental action, and the long-awaited finalization of a regional Code of Conduct (COC).

“As long as we cooperate… we make the South China Sea ‘the sea where we can benefit together’,” Kasemsuvan stated, emphasizing that shared prosperity is the strongest deterrent to conflict.

The Quest for a Code of Conduct

At the heart of Kasemsuvan's diplomatic prescription is the urgent need to conclude the South China Sea Code of Conduct. Negotiations between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have been ongoing for over two decades, intended to create a framework for managing tensions and preventing incidents in one of the world's most critical waterways.

“We are eagerly awaiting the COC, right? So many years already in the making,” Kasemsuvan said, expressing a hope that the next year could see a breakthrough. “We can't cooperate without COC.”

However, progress has been notoriously slow, mired in complex disagreements over the code's legal enforceability, its geographical scope, and its relationship with international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The landmark 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling, which invalidated China’s expansive historical claims in the sea—a ruling Beijing has consistently rejected—adds another layer of complexity to the diplomatic landscape.

While these high-level talks remain stalled, Kasemsuvan championed the use of interim measures to build trust. He pointed to provisions within UNCLOS that allow for “provisional measures” where countries can engage in functional cooperation on specific issues without prejudicing their ultimate sovereignty claims. “So let's cooperate in everything,” he urged.

Climate Change: A Unifying Threat

Kasemsuvan identified a powerful, non-negotiable force that he believes should catalyze this cooperation: climate change. He argued that the most immediate and practical starting point for collaboration lies in addressing shared environmental threats.

“The most important and easiest way to cooperate in the South China Sea is on the environmental protection of the sea,” he asserted. “Everybody feels it, every littoral state of South China Sea feels the impact of marine environmental problem. And that is where we should start.”

His words resonate in a region acutely vulnerable to climate impacts. From the Mekong Delta to the archipelagos of the Philippines and Indonesia, coastlines are threatened by rising sea levels. Kasemsuvan pointed to increasingly severe weather patterns as an undeniable reality. “We in several countries in Southeast Asia have been affected recently is the unprecedented level of torrential rainfalls. And flooding is now getting higher and higher and higher every year… not because of the rainfalls only, but because of the sea level that is rising as well.”

He dismissed any notion that these are fabricated issues. “Scientific evidence have shown so much that this is happening. This is a great hazard to humanity,” he said, stressing the need for a multilateral, holistic response that begins with public understanding and political will. “We need to make people convince and believe that the world is being threatened… This is not a fantasy.”

A New Vision for Economic Partnership

Beyond environmental security, Kasemsuvan highlighted the deepening economic interdependence between China and ASEAN as a cornerstone of regional stability. For four consecutive years, China and ASEAN have been each other's largest trading partners, with total trade exceeding $900 billion, a figure bolstered by frameworks like the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

But the former minister stressed that this relationship must evolve beyond simple trade balances. He called for a more technologically advanced and, crucially, “reciprocal” partnership.

“We cannot just having China importing everything into us. China has to take things, buy things from us as well,” he explained. “The greater our trade and economic relation is reciprocal, the greater our cooperation will be.”

This new phase of cooperation is already taking shape in the green technology sector. Kasemsuvan noted that Thailand and other ASEAN nations are increasingly looking to China for environmental solutions. “We import a lot of solar energy equipments, cars, EVs are very important now at the moment,” he said. This collaboration in strategic sectors like renewable energy and electric vehicles represents a significant shift, embedding technological transfer and shared innovation into the economic relationship.

This partnership, he suggested, also serves as a regional buffer against global economic volatility and protectionism. “China and ASEAN, we have to hold hands together, we have to go together and create greater possibility in our region,” he remarked, alluding to external tariff pressures.

Ultimately, Kasemsuvan's message is a pragmatic one. By focusing on areas of clear mutual benefit—whether combating climate change, fostering secure coastlines, or building reciprocal trade—nations can create tangible stakes in regional peace. When countries feel they are benefiting from cooperation, the incentive to risk those gains through conflict diminishes. “Once you feel that you have the benefit, you don't want to lose that benefit,” he concluded. For a region navigating complex geopolitical currents, this focus on shared interests may offer the most promising route to a more stable and prosperous future.