From the end of October to the beginning of November, the 5th meeting of the South China Sea Legal Working Group was held in Thailand. At the beginning of November, the 3rd meeting of the Experts Group on the Exchange of the South China Sea Sea-Lane Survey Data and Information was held in Indonesia. Due to budget reason, the workshop did not hold any meeting in 2000. At present, the workshop and the Technical Working Group and the Experts Group under it lay particular attention to working in specific technical fields and in pushing join development and cooperation. China sent delegates to these meetings and continued to publicize its propositions of "Shelving disputes and conducting joint development" and "Easy issues first, difficult issues later".