On April 6-7, 2016, Ms. Yan Yan, deputy director of the Research Centre for Oceans Law and Policy at the NISCSS, attended the 8th ASEAN Regional Forum Inter-Sessional Meeting on Maritime Security in Manila. The meeting was held by the Philippines’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ms. Yan delivered a speech entitled "'Best' Practice: The Mediterranean Maritime Cooperation on Marine Environmental Protection and implication to the South China Sea”.

At this meeting, the representatives reviewed the workshops on East Asian maritime security issues held in 2015 and 2016, and conducted in-depth discussions on various topics, such as East Asian maritime security, cooperation in marine environmental protection and the implementation of the CUES (Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea).

Present at the meeting were about 100 representatives from 27 member countries of ASEAN Regional Forum, the ASEAN secretariat, the The Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP) and other international organizations.

Representatives from the US, Japan and the Philippines co-chaired this meeting.