Philippines' Duterte warns over South China Sea 'flashpoint'

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte voiced rare frustration with China Friday, urging progress on a code of conduct for the contested South China Sea, which he warned was becoming a "flashpoint".

Duterte was delivering a speech at an economic forum in Tokyo, but veered off script with remarks about the resource-rich sea, over most of which China claims sovereignty despite competing claims from the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan and Vietnam.

"I love China... but it behooves upon us to ask, 'is it right for a country to claim the whole ocean?" he said.

Beijing and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have for years tried to hammer out a code of conduct to govern the disputed waters, but the process has been slow.

"I am sad and bewildered -- not angry, because I cannot do anything," Duterte said. "I just hope China will come up with this 'conduct' soon."

"The longer it takes," he said, the greater the chance the sea would be a "flashpoint of troubles", ...