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Out of the five major hot-spot tensions in the world, the South China Sea is a rare place where all the claimants are talking routinely in an official and structured format. This is because the talks linked to a clear pathway [for South China Sea peace and stability], which is called the Code of Conduct (COC), are going way too slow, but at the very least, the guns are silent and have been silent for quite some time. Exercising self-restraint is critically important. All claimants need to avoid actions that will provoke responses from others. This is important because once an incident starts between two or more claimants, there's really no mechanism to stop it. So self-restraint is a form of preventive diplomacy, and it is essential for all claimants to practice it.  We also need greater efforts focused on confidence-building. The South China Sea situation is evolving in a larger context of intensifying rivalries, low trust, rising insecurity and tension. And there is the possibility that brinkmanship will come forward. Unfortunately, the South China Sea at the moment is suffering from a noticeable lack of confidence-building measures, which explains the low trust that exists now among some of the claimants.  The ability of China and ASEAN to manage the South China Sea disputes peacefully will serve as a powerful example to a troubled world, demonstrating that the relationship between the two sides is also a robust problem-solving partnership and that Asians have the craft, skill and political will to transform conflict into cooperation. Source: Global Times