This week's series of meetings held by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh have been successful in cementing partnerships both inside and outside the region and bringing the bloc one step closer toward its goal of building an ASEAN community in 2015.

It is essential that all ASEAN members rally around the goals set in the meetings so that the good momentum of regional cooperation and integration can be maintained. But the dissonance in Phnom Penh meetings should also remind the 10-member bloc of the urgency and necessity of peaceful negotiations and dialogues when differences and disputes over some sensitive regional issues arise.

Disregarding the cooperative atmosphere among East Asian countries, a few countries, including the Philippines, once again attempted to play up the disputes over the South China Sea.