Suzhou has sometimes been called the Venice of the East. And appropriately so, for it is in the small Jiangsu city that some of China's best preserved classic gardens and willowy pavilions are interspersed with a vast web of canals, giving rise to a cultured milieu of modern artistic living.

And the waters were the main subjects of discussion in Suzhou recently during the Sixth ASEAN-China Senior Officials' Meeting and the Ninth Joint Working Group Meeting on the Implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC).

The DOC is a historic document signed by all 10 ASEAN countries and China in 2002. It has been cleverly crafted so that while it lays out the fundamental principles for the parties' peaceful conduct and cooperation in the South China Sea, the sensitive issues of claims and sovereignty in the region are stayed clear of. Trust and confidence building mechanisms, freedom of navigation, as well as the exercise of self-restraints, have become the cornerstone of the DOC.

At a time of renewed tensions, the DOC's provision calling for self-restraints frankly depends on the goodwill and maturity of individual parties concerned. In their enthusiasm to satisfy domestic political needs, some parties may recklessly overreach their actual national defense capability and undertake activities which are detrimental to the spirit and letters of the DOC.

But there's no cause for despair. Headway is being made on the other "pillar" of the DOC, namely the various trust and confidence building mechanisms.

There is increasing understanding that although the clattering sounds of jurisdictional claims over the South China Sea have reached a crescendo recently, these often conflicting assertions of sovereignty do not present a chance of imminent resolution.

In an ideal global order, disputes over sovereignty could be peacefully settled by reference to law, tradition, norms and other such more objective references. In the real world however, the harsh reality of both international power plays and domestic political intrigues often takes precedence over good sense.

But meanwhile, thousands of ships carrying billions of dollars' worth of goods pass through this stretch of sea. So something must be done to boost the trust and confidence of not only state parties, but also the other more directly affected stakeholders of shippers, manufacturers, exporters and importers, and consumers.

It was therefore especially timely that during the Suzhou meetings, China proposed the setting up of a hotline for emergency rescue in the South China Sea, and also a sandbox for joint search and rescue. That the parties are putting their heads together and rolling up their sleeves to address pressing common concerns that present not only humanitarian but financial concerns is a good sign of working together peacefully for the common good.

But for the moment, the gigantic but somewhat ignored elephant waddling its way through the Suzhou meetings, and perhaps for similar meetings to come, was the much acclaimed journey toward the adoption by the same parties of a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC).

While the DOC remains a potent instrument of peace and cooperation for parties to South China Sea as the Suzhou meetings testify, a COC has the advantage of an even greater force in international law, besides laying out in greater details the expected actions and reactions of the various parties during encounters and interactions in the South China Sea.

Despite the differences over the South China Sea that from time to time emanated from their national capitals, the participants of the Suzhou meetings agreed to push forward the consultations and development of the COC. The practical need to construct a legally more robust and practically more applicable code for sound behavior in the busiest ocean region in the world prevails over long-term jurisdictional jostling.

Although signs of recovery are blossoming, the global economy is still wallowing at the throes of a stubborn recession. A peacefully maintained South China Sea is of particular significance to the sustenance of a recuperating global economy. This precious lifeline must be soundly serviced.

The author is a senior fellow with the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn