ASEAN to sign e-commerce pact

ASEAN to sign e-commerce pact

SINGAPORE (AP): Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, will sign a free-trade e-commerce agreement during an informal summit in Singapore later this month, officials said Wednesday.

But leaders are unlikely to sign a code of conduct for the South China Sea, where several Asean members and China dispute possession of mineral-rich islands, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Michael Tay told a news conference Wednesday.

The ministry didn't give further details of the pact, which they have coined an "e-Asean Framework Agreement."

Tay said Asean leaders were likely to discuss the relevance and future of the grouping during the informal summit in Singapore from Nov. 24 to 26.

Aside from the Asean leaders' meetings, there will be two additional summits including the leaders of China, South Korea and Japan.

Tay said a South China Sea code of conduct "might be signed in Singapore" but that it was unlikely because countries were still negotiating terms of a code for the contested Spratlys archipelago.