Environment Cooperation

With the desire to promote peaceful, friendly and harmonious environment in the South China Sea, ASEAN and China signed the Declaration on the Conducts of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) in November 2002 in Phnom Penh. After a series of discussions, ASEAN and China adopted the Guidelines to implement the DOC on 21 July 2011 in Bali, Indonesia.

On environmental cooperation, the ASEAN-China Environmental Protection Cooperation Strategy 2009-2015 was adopted by the Environment Ministers of ASEAN Member States and China at the 8^th ASEAN Plus Three Environment Ministers Meeting in October 2009 to serve as a guiding document for enhancing ASEAN-China cooperation in common priority areas of environmental protection up to 2015. Subsequently, the China-ASEAN Environmental Cooperation Centre (CAEC) was established in Beijing on 17 March 2010 and officially inaugurated on 24 May 2011 to implement the ASEAN-China Environmental Protection Cooperation Strategy 2009-2015. Activities and programmes implemented under the Cooperation Strategy include ASEAN-China Environmental Cooperation Forum, China-ASEAN Green Envoys Program, Biodiversity and Ecological Protection Cooperation, Environmental Technology and Industry Cooperation, and Joint Research.

At the 11th China-ASEAN Summit in 2007, the Chinese Premier WEN Jiabao introduced a set of cooperation proposals,including the formulation of the China-ASEAN strategy on environmental protection cooperation and the establishment of the China-ASEAN Environmental Protection Center (CAEC), with the aim to build a resource-conservingand environment-friendly EastAsia. With the approval of the Chinese Government,CAEC was established in March 2010. Aiming at promoting regional cooperation on environment between ASEAN MemberStates and China, CAEC operates independently under the guidance and with the support of the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) of China.

Agreement Documents