From Oct. 9 to 11, local time, during Premier Li Keqiang's visit to Brunei, the two countries issued the Joint Statement between the People's Republic of China and Brunei Darussalam. The two sides decided to further deepen bilateral relations, and agreed to enhance maritime cooperation to promote joint development.
The two sides stress that the directly involved sovereign states solve the South China Sea territorial and jurisdictional disputes through peaceful dialogues and consultations. Both sides reiterate to be committed to comprehensively and effectively carrying out the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), safeguarding regional peace, stability and security, increasing mutual trust and strengthening cooperation. Both sides welcome the 6th China-ASEAN Senior Officials' Meeting on the Implementation of DOC held in Suzhou in Sept. this year, and the positive progress achieved through consultations on DOC under the framework of the implementation of DOC, and think that we should steadily promote the process of the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC) through step-by-step and consensus-building approach.
The governments on both sides are satisfied with the existing bilateral cooperation in the energy field, especially the cooperation between China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and Brunei National Petroleum Company Sendirian Berhad (PetroleumBRUNEI), and welcome the agreement signed by CNOOC and PetroleumBRUNEI on setting up a joint venture. Both parties agree to support relevant companies of both countries to carry out joint maritime development, and to explore and exploit offshore oil and gas resources, based on the China-Brunei Joint Statement, published on April 5 this year.
On April 5, 2013, during Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah's visit, the two countries issued the Joint Statement, agreeing to support relevant companies of both countries to jointly explore and exploit offshore oil and gas resources, on the basis of the principle of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefits. The relevant cooperation will not affect the respective maritime rights and interests of the two countries.